Miss Granny

重返20岁

China/South Korea/Hong Kong/Taiwan, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 131 mins.

Director: Chen Zhengdao 陈正道 [Leste Chen].

Rating: 8/10.

Chinese version of the South Korean body-swap comedy is a richer and more affecting movie.

STORY

Jinjing municipality, Dongqing district, somewhere in Northern China, the present day, summer. The widowed Shen Mengjun (Gui Yalei), 70, lives with her son Xiang Guobin (Zhao Lixin), a university lecturer, and his wife Yang Qin (Li Yijuan) and their twin children Xiang Xinran (Yin Hang) and Xiang Qianjin (Lu Han). During the day, Shen Mengjun plays majiang at the local old people’s community centre, along with friends like Li Dahai (Wang Deshun), a onetime servant to her family who’s always secretly loved her, and Chen Yumei (Yang Qing), another widow. Shen Mengjun’s perpetual lecturing and fussing drives her whole family crazy, especially her daughter-in-law, who eventually collapses from nervous strain and is taken to hospital. Shen Mengjun privately decides to move out and leave the family in peace. Before she does, she invites Xiang Qianjin, who runs a rock band, to dinner. On the way, she passes an old shop called Youth Photo Studio 青春照相馆, which she’d bever noticed before, and has her photo taken in preparation for her not-so-far-off funeral. She asks the owner (Li Mengxia) to make her look like late Taiwan singer Deng Lijun, aka Teresa Teng, who was her idol when she was young. On her way to meet Xiang Qianjin and his pals, she suddenly realises from her reflection in a bus window that she’s lost 50 years. Running back to the photo studio, she finds a licensed sex shop there instead. After coming to terms with her transformation, she decides to dress like the singer and, under the pseudonym Meng Lijun, rents a room at the house of Li Dahai and his unmarried daughter Li Xiaoyan (Lin Cong). She drops a note to her family, telling them not to worry over her disappearance. Accompanying Li Dahai to the community centre, she sings some old songs one day and is spotted by music producer Tan Ziming (Chen Bolin), who’s looking for new talent for a TV show. Xiang Qianjin is also entranced by her, and invites her to become his band’s new vocalist, following the departure of their existing one, Xiaomei (Zhou Yutong), in a huff. She agrees, after convincing them to become a retro band, and the partnership is a success. Meanwhile, from CCTV footage showing Meng Lijun using Shen Mengjun’s bank card, the police start to suspect the younger woman has kidnapped the older one.

REVIEW

A Chinese version of the 2014 hit South Korean body-swap comedy, Miss Granny 重返20岁 not only finds young director Chen Zhengdao 陈正道 [Leste Chen] rediscovering his creative mojo after the lame rom-com Say Yes! 101次求婚 (2013) and iffy psychodrama The Great Hypnotist 催眠大师 (2014) but also confirms a major talent in Mainland actress-singer Yang Zishan 杨子珊, 28, in only her second leading role after So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春 (2013). The only Taiwan director of his generation to seriously pursue a career in the Mainland, Chen, 31, first hit gold with his third feature, the delightful rom-com Love on Credit 幸福额度 (2011); here he hits his stride again, with confident direction and a cast that strikes sparks off each other, led by Yang, as the granny who suddenly finds herself 50 years younger, inhabiting the role from her opening scene.

The South Korean and Chinese versions were reportedly developed at the same time, as part of CJ Entertainment’s growing interest in the Mainland market. But with Chen busy on Hypnotist, he only started shooting his version in summer 2014, six months after the South Korean Miss Granny 수상한  그녀 had been released. Though that version has never been distributed theatrically in China, it’s certainly known there via DVD (as 奇怪的她, roughly “Strange Girl”), and Chen’s version even includes an in-joke where the face of the South Korean actress, Shim Eun-gyeong 심은경 | 沈恩敬, is seen on a bus hoarding at the time of the body-swap. In every respect, therefore, this can be considered a Chinese re-make of a South Korean original – and the first by a Chinese rather than South Korean director.

In its plotting, Chen’s version, written by Lin Xiaoge 林小革 and Mainland writer Ren Peng 任鹏 (Say Yes!, Hypnotist), hews fairly closely to the original, with a naggy granny who drives her family crazy suddenly losing 50 years after visiting a mysterious photo studio and then going on to become a hit singer in her grandson’s band. But in overall flavour it’s very different and much more affecting. Not only does it prepare the viewer for the magical body-swap with an opening sequence that morphs through time but also it relies much less on TV drama-like stereotypes than the South Korean version. The writers have also found convincing Chinese equivalents for specific details: the granny models her looks on her youthful idol, Taiwan singer Deng Lijun 邓丽君 [Teresa Teng], rather than western icon Audrey Hepburn, and whenever she forgets whom she now is she becomes a gently naggy Chinese granny rather than a country-bumpkin harridan. In short, the script thoroughly reinterprets the story in Mainland terms, with no feeling that it’s just been photocopied from a foreign template.

Chen also creates a whole separate mood for his film that has a slightly dream-like quality. (Like Hypnotist, much was shot in Tianjin, though the setting is a fictional northern city.) Hong Kong d.p. Lin Zhijian 林志坚 [Charlie Lam], who also shot Hypnotist, brings a rosy-coloured feel to many of the summer scenes, while the art direction has a slightly retro feel in the buildings – and certain interiors like the photo studio – that underlines the sense of the past and present co-existing in the main character. At a sheer technical level, it’s Chen’s most assured and thought-through movie, with small felicities giving the film much greater emotional depth than the South Korean version, which largely relied on a grandstanding performance by young actress Shim (Sunny 써니, 2011).

With a less manufactured charm, Yang is genuinely likeable as the title character, getting under her skin through details like a slight stoop and the placement of her hands rather than just through her retro hairstyle and clothes – which actually become less important as the story evolves. It’s a fully realised performance that’s valid on its own terms, and doesn’t rely just on kookiness or cuteness – witness one scene where she tries to hold back her criticism of her daughter-in-law’s cooking. Yang’s vocal skills also help the credibility of the singing sequences.

Like the South Korean version, the movie could also take some trims, but it sustains itself (even at a generous 131 minutes, seven longer than the original) rather better thanks to the richer emotional fabric. There’s little sense of marking time in the second half, which is devoted more to the granny sorting out her relationships with the four men in her life rather than just more jokes about the body-swap.

As the former servant who’s always secretly loved her, Wang Deshun 王德顺 (Full Circle 飞越老人院, 2012) is terrific in a believable, low-key way, while Taiwan veteran Gui Yalei 归亚蕾 bookends the film with a mellow dignity that makes her maternal nagging sympathetic and understandable rather than just annoying and bullying. Taiwan star Chen Bolin 陈柏霖, here less mumbly than usual, is okay in a relatively small role as a music producer, and plays with a light touch, while Beijing-born, Seoul-based popster Lu Han 鹿晗, 24, acceptably scales back his boyband prettiness in his film debut as the band-owning grandson. Other cast meld convincingly, with only the role of the old granny’s son receiving less attention than is originally flagged. However, actor Zhao Lixin 赵立新 (the family driver in courtroom drama Silent Witness 全民目击, 2013) does have one powerful scene with Yang near the end that helps to repair the deficit in his part.

Outside China and Taiwan, the film is being sold under the English title 20 Once Again.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Century Media Culture (CN), CK Entertainment (SK), Beijing C2M Media (CN), Zhejiang Huace Film & TV (CN), Media Asia Film Production (HK), CatchPlay (TW), Invincible Plan (TW), Pegasus Ubiquitous Culture Media (CN), Beijing Century Media (CN), Tianjin Century Media, China Film (CN). Produced by Tianjin Century Media (CN), CJ Entertainment (SK).

Script: Lin Xiaoge, Ren Peng. Original script: Shin Dong-ik, Hong Yun-jeong, Dong Heui-seon, Hwang Dong-hyeok. Photography: Lin Zhijian [Charlie Lam]. Editing: Yang Hongyu, Dai Bing. Music: Chen Junting. Art direction: Luo Shunfu, Shen Zhanzhi. Costume design: Ye Zhuzhen. Sound: Chen Ting, Yang Jiang, Zhao Nan. Car stunts: Luo Yimin. Visual effects: Xu Jian, Shi Wen (More Visual Production). Executive direction: Chen Yongyu.

Cast: Yang Zishan (Meng Lijun), Gui Yalei (Shen Mengjun, Xiang Guobin’s mother), Chen Bolin (Tan Ziming), Lu Han (Xiang Qianjin, Xiang Guobin’s son), Wang Deshun (Li Dahai), Zhao Lixin (Xiang Guobin), Yin Hang (Xiang Xinran, Xiang Guobin’s daughter), Li Yijuan (Yang Qin, Xiang Guobin’s wife), Lin Cong (Li Xiaoyan, Li Dahai’s daughter), Xia Zihan (Cindy, Tan Ziming’s assistant), Yang Qing (Chen Yumei), Xu Jiahao (bass player), Du Shuangyu (drummer), Ailiya (Lin Xiaofeng), Huo Shuzhe, Liu Mengmeng, Zhang Zheng, Wang Qing (students), Jiu Shumin (Auntie Liu), Zhang Jingquan (Uncle Lv), Tian Shan (Auntie Zhang), Zhou Yutong (Xiaomei, band’s former singer), Li Mengxia (photo-studio owner), Hao Xuankai, Cui Dongxu (troublemakers), Zhang Jie (sex-shop owner), Chu Siu-fung (young singer), Zhu Xuan (young mother), Xu Boyun (her mother), Ma Fuyong, Jin Jin (policemen), Su Xin, Jiang Haomin (hoodlums), Xiao Fei (Ye, doctor), Li Xuanzhen (nurse), Li Jiacheng (young Xiang Guobin), Jin Yanting (young Yang Qin), Liu Zimo (childhood Xiang Guobin), Wang Xingjun (Shen Mengjun’s husband), Li Tianyu (young Li Dahai).

Release: China, 8 Jan 2015; Hong Kong, 22 Jan 2015; Taiwan, 23 Jan 2015; South Korea, tba.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 23 Feb 2015.)