That Girl in Pinafore

我的朋友  我的同学  我♥过的一切

Singapore, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 109 mins.

Director: Cai Yuwei 蔡於位 [Chai Yee Wei].

Rating: 6/10.

Youth semi-musical has a great A Side but utterly conventional B Side.

STORY

Singapore, 1992. A group of three schoolfriends – Hao Ban (Qiu Fengze), son of a noodle-stall owner, Cao Gen (She Jiaqing), son of flower-shop owner, and tubby Xiaopang (Wen Zhaobao), a dentist’s son – are swotting out at Changi Airport on the eve of their O-Level exams to enter junior college. They’re joined by Li Jiaming (Chen Shiwei), who knows he’s going to fail and instead has been helping out his parents at a music bar, called “Dream Boat”, that they sank their savings into a year ago. On a dare, Li Jiaming tries to pick up two girls studying nearby, identical twins Hayley and Jayley Hu (Hu Jiayi, Hu Jiaqi); as the boys are chased away by a security guard, Li Jiaming bumps into the twins’ friend, Sun Xiaomei (Chen Xinqi). Three months later, Hao Ban, Cao Gen and Xiaopang have ended up at the same junior college as the three girls; the boys make some side money hiring out porno magazines to fellow students. After a rival group, led by cocky James, tries to muscle in on the business, the three boys are discovered by a teacher, Miss Ang, and given one month’s suspension. Li Jiaming tells them to treat it like a holiday, and the four decide to enter the 1993 Xin Yao Singing Competition, which has a first prize of S$5,000. Also entering are James’ gang and the three girls. When the latter’s backing tape breaks, Li Jiaming & Co. help them out on stage and, to thank them, the girls agree to help revive business at “Dream Boat”, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. They’re joined by Liyana (Huang Yixuan), the Chinese-speaking daughter of Xiaopang’s Malaysian family driver, Ezzam. All goes well until Sun Xiaomei, who has a chronic weak-heart condition, collapses. Her ambitious mother, who wants her to move to the US to continue her studies, forbids her to have anymore to do with her musical friends. But she’s already fallen for Li Jiaming.

REVIEW

Seldom has a film raised as many hopes and dashed them so disappointingly as That Girl in Pinafore 我的朋友  我的同学  我♥过的一切. A tribute to Singapore’s home-grown xinyao 新谣 song movement that began in the mid-1980s and petered out in the mid-1990s – a kind of group folk-pop centred on local life – it begins as a witty, exhilarating semi-musical centred on a collection of teenage students but ends up as conventional, toothless melodrama more suited to daytime TV. For its A Side, the movie easily rates an 8/10; for its B Side, it just about scrapes 4/10.

The third feature by writer-director Cai Yuwei 蔡於位 [Chai Yee Wei], following his horror Blood Ties 还魂 (2009) and horror-comedy Twisted 撞鬼 (2011), Pinafore opens in 1992 – a year that saw the banning of chewing gum, as well as a rare by-election, in the island republic. As a group of pals all cram in the quiet, air-conditioned airport for their junior-college entrance exam the next day, the only one who isn’t swotting is Li Jiaming, who knows he’s going to fail and has been spending time helping his parents with their music bar into which they’ve sunk all their savings. On a dare, Li Jiaming tries to pick up two twin sisters who are studying nearby, and also bumps into their friend Sun Xiaomei. Three months later, his three friends and the three girls are all at the same junior college and end up entering a song competition, together with Li Jiaming, whose struggling music bar they then all decide to help.

It’s a fairly routine plot, but Cai’s lively direction, the kids’ excellent ensemble, and the script’s cheeky wit (lightly sending up Singaporean “patriotism” and even including a joke about chewing gum) make the film seem absolutely fresh. Performances are natural and likeable – both from the kids and the adults – and the dialogue, mostly in Mandarin, has an unforced feel that’s rare in other Mandarin movies from the island. The songs, too – here in new arrangements – are real foot-tappers, especially a roof-raising performance during the competition trials of the classic Heart of Dawn 黎明的心, written by xinyao pioneer Liang Wenfu 梁文福. At the 50-minute mark, everything looks set for a lively (if formulaic) finale that will integrate the kids’ attempts to save the music bar with the finals of the competition, already imperilled by a school bully who also has his eyes on Sun Xiaomei.

But then the film starts to go horribly wrong. Ignoring the song competition – which is only later referred to in a clumsy flashback – Cai’s script, co-written with Li Zhiyun 黎芷芸, concentrates on the Li Jiaming/Sun Xiaomei love story to the exclusion of the ensemble, throws in some stiffly played scenes between Sun Xiaomei and her ambitious mother, and veers off into a soap opera-ish sub-plot that includes scenes set in New York and is resolved in an arch coda set 18 years later, in the present day. From potentially being one of the best Singaporean movies for some time – with a wit and energy that takes local production into a genuinely broader arena – Pinafore ends up being utterly conventional.

More’s the pity that Cai & Co. squander a generally fine cast, and all its accumulated potential, by concentrating on the Li Jiaming/Sun Xiaomei love story to the exclusion of almost everything else. Though he looks a tad old for the part, singer Chen Shiwei 陈世维, 30, brings a wry humour to the role of Li Jiaming and pairs well with TV actress-model Chen Xinqi 陈欣淇, 20, as Sun Xiaomei. On the male side, newcomers She Jiaqing 佘珈庆, Qiu Fengze 邱锋泽 and Wen Zhaobao 文兆保 (as the obligatory fatty) form a believable band of sex-obsessed, pranky teenagers; and on the female side, real-life twins Hu Jiaqi 胡佳琪 and Hu Jiayi 胡佳嬑 are excellent (especially the former) as the boys’ tart-mouthed quarries, joined by Chinese Indonesian actress Huang Yixuan 黄意轩 as a pert Malay. Though she’s constrained by a soupy role, Yang Huishi 杨慧诗 pops up at the end for a moving performance of another xinyao classic, the ballad Friendship Forever 细水长流 by Wu Qixian 巫启贤 [Eric Moo].

Technical credits are very smooth, with versatile photography by Lv Junjie 吕俊杰, clever use of split screen in some ensembles, and tight editing by Su Zhiyun 苏智韵 [Natalie Soh]. The Singlish-y English title refers to a school dress the boys perform in. The original Chinese title roughly means “Everything That I, My Friends and My Classmates Loved”.

CREDITS

Produced by Hot Cider Films (SG).

Script: Cai Yuwei [Chai Yee Wei], Li Zhiyun. Photography: Lv Junjie. Editing: Su Zhiyun [Natalie Soh]. Art direction: Hong Wenhan [Randy Ang].

Cast: Chen Shiwei (Li Jiaming), Chen Xinqi (Sun Xiaomei/May), She Jiaqing (Cao Gen), Qiu Fengze (Hao Ban), Hu Jiaqi (Jayley), Hu Jiayi (Hayley), Wen Zhaobao (Xiaopang/Fattie), Huang Yixuan (Liyana), Yang Huishi (Rachel).

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Spectrum), 18 Jun 2013.

Release: Singapore, 1 Aug 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 15 Jul 2013.)