Fireworks
毕业的我们
China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 108 mins.
Supervising director: Cheng Zhonghao 程中豪.
Directors: Wang Kai 王凯, Ma Ding 马丁.
Rating: 7/10.
Superior example of the then-and-now genre, contrasting a group of friends in college days and their early 30s.
STORY
Ziyang county, Ankang municipality, Shaanxi province, north-central China, 2006. Five friends in senior high school – the quiet, bookish Hao Ran (Yao Xingtong), moody, introverted Yang Fan (Xie Binbin), nervous, self-obsessed Li Momo (Cui Baoming), outgoing Leng Yinuo (Yan Jiaying) and easygoing, entrepreneurial Hong Yang (Li Guanming) – have just finished their mock exams and are preparing to go their separate ways in life while promising to always stay in touch. Hong Yang has dubbed the group The Streetlight Five 路灯五君子, after a lamp post on a bridge they often cycle across. Li Momo, who is dating Yang Fan, is worried about her results and obsessed with dying; Leng Yinuo only dreams of becoming a famous super-model; Hong Yang is soon to leave for Shenzhen, where he hopes to make his fortune; and Hao Ran, who is close friends with Li Momo, keeps her own quiet counsel. Twelve years later, in 2018, Yang Fan and Hao Ran meet at the grave of Leng Yinuo, who has recently died. Hao Ran is now a journalist and Yang Fan is married to Li Momo, who has a longterm illness and largely stays at home; Hong Yang is about to arrive by plane from Shenzhen. (In 2006, when Hong Yang took the train south to Shenzhen, the three girls had all turned up to see him off, but Yang Fan had not, to Hong Yang’s disappointment.) Leng Yinuo’s mother (Xiang Hong) throws a lunch for her daughter’s four friends but Hao Ran fails to turn up; Li Momo, who’s come despite her health problems, thinks it’s because Hao Ran is avoiding her. (In 2006, at school, Yang Fan had confessed to Hong Yang that he was in love with a girl.) After the lunch, Yang Fan and Hong Yang get drunk together, with the former envious of the latter’s material success. (In 2006, after the university entrance exam, the three girls and Yang Fan had spent an idyllic day by the river. Leng Yinuo was already starting her career as a model.) While collecting her medicine at the hospital’s pharmacy, Li Momo bumps into Hao Ran and the two have an awkward talk. Hao Ran, who is taking painkillers for headaches she’s had since her teens, says she was busy at work the day of the lunch. Each stresses her friendship with the other but Li Momo, who’s always suspected something between Hao Ran and Yang Fan, obliquely tells Hao Ran to “wait your turn”. (In 2006, Hao Ran had been happy to see that she and Yang Fan were to attend the same university.) Later, Li Momo tells Yang Fan he should stop looking after her, as she is dying anyway, and they should get divorced. Yang Fan tells this to Hong Yang, who has personal problems of his own, and then learns he was the last in the group to know about Li Momo’s illness, which she had kept secret from him.
REVIEW
The best film to date by Shanghai-based film-making duo Cheng Zhonghao 程中豪, 44, and Wang Kai 王凯, 33 – here joined by co-writer/director Ma Ding 马丁 – Fireworks 毕业的我们 is a superior example of the then-and-now genre, in this case pitched at Gen-90ers. Despite its totally generic Chinese title (“We After Graduation”), and being the third of their four movies to include a college setting (after Broadcasting Girl 我的播音系女友, 2014, and We Graduate 我们毕业啦, 2016), it’s a considerable step-up, with a more ambitious structure and tone. But at a tiny RMB3.5 million, its box office, alas, did not reflect its quality.
The sudden improvement would appear to be due to the involvement of Heilongjiang-born Ma, 32, a regular actress in the duo’s previous movies who here makes her big-screen debut as a writer-director. A graduate of both Shanghai-based East China Normal University and Shanghai Theatre Academy, she has considerable experience beyond just acting. Though the five main characters are cut from familiar cloth – the ambitious model, the money-obsessed businessman, the principled journalist, and so on – the nuances in their relationships, as the film moves back and forth between 2006 and 2018, are subtly revealed in considerable dialogue scenes that show no need to pander to commercial considerations.
The over-arching theme is a common one in Mainland cinema of the past decade or so: how real (i.e. post-graduate) life changes earlier ideals of friendship for ever. The story is largely driven by the three women in the group, and a kind of real-life parallel provided by their liking for Taiwan girl group S.H.E. whose career roughly spans the period of their friendship. That friendship is fraught with hidden crevasses: the self-obsessed Li Momo (long dying of an unnamed disease, seemingly leukaemia) suspects her supposed BFF Hao Ran has always fancied her husband Yang Fan, while the equally self-obsessed Leng Yinuo, whose recent death hangs over the other four as they re-group in the present day, was driven solely to become a famous super-model.
Though they’re given token character arcs of their own, the two men in the story – moody Yang Fan and easygoing businessman Hong Yang – are not at the heart of the plot, especially given the low-key performance by Hangzhou-born actor-singer Xie Binbin 谢彬彬 (here less engaging than in Miss Forever 一生有你2019, 2019) as the former. Despite a likeable performance by Li Guanming 李冠明 as the entrepreurial Hong Yang who discovers money can’t buy happiness (surprise, surprise), both actors struggle to make a dent in a story that pivots on the three female characters. And though both Cui Baoyue 崔宝月 (the ambitious roommate in Romance Out of the Blue 浪漫天降, 2015) and Yan Jiaying 闫佳颖 are believable as the introverted Li Momo and outgoing Leng Yinuo, it’s Heilongjiang-born actress-writer Yao Xingtong 姚星彤 (CZ12 十二生肖, 2012; EX-Files 前任攻略, 2014), top-billed, who takes the main honours as Hao Ran, the quiet intellectual of the group who nurses a nagging disappointment in her life. If the film lacks the emotional clout it should have, given the quality of writing and performances, it’s maybe because it has the same reserved tone throughout, with no ups and downs in the drama.
Making good use of the eye-catching scenery around Ziyang county, Shaanxi province, the widescreen photography by Chen Jian 陈健 (We Graduate) is all for the actors and never overtly flashy. Ditto for the gentle, reflective score by Qiao Mi’er 乔米儿 for piano and solo instruments. The 2006 sequences, with their nostalgia for simpler, cheaper times, are convincingly evoked by art director Guan Xing 管星, stylist Wu Junlin 吴俊霖 and the costumes by Xiao Lin 肖琳. Like so many Mainland films nowadays, anti-smoking warnings are distractingly shoehorned into the modern scenes, though excessive boozing is still seen as okay.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Tianzhi Image Film & TV Media (CN), Hebei Shangtong Huanhui Film & TV Culture Media (CN). Produced by Beijing Tianzhi Image Film & TV Media (CN), Hebei Shangtong Huanhui Film & TV Culture Media (CN).
Script: Ma Ding, Gu Xin. Photography: Chen Jian. Editing: Mao Qingfeng. Music: Qiao Mi’er. Art direction: Guan Xing. Styling: Wu Junlin. Costumes: Xiao Lin. Sound: Wang Guanzhong.
Cast: Yao Xingtong (Hao Ran), Xie Binbin (Yang Fan), Cui Baoyue (Li Momo), Yan Jiaying (Leng Yinuo), Li Guanming (Hong Yang), Pan Yiyang (Xia Da), Ma Ding (teacher), Xiang Hong (Leng Yinuo’s mother), Liu Yu (Li Momo’s mother), Cao Yi (Hao Ran’s mother), Wang Helong (Hong Yang’s father), Xue Yanbo (neighbour), Zhou Yilin (Hong Jiayan, Hong Yang’s son).
Release: China, 27 Aug 2019.