Lips and Soul
唇唇欲动
China, 2013, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 90 mins.
Director: Su Lun 苏伦.
Rating: 6/10.
Slickly mounted chickflick rom-com wears out its initial welcome with a one-note, plotless format.
STORY
Binzhou city, Shandong province, northern China, the present day. Anorexic, misophobic photographer Leng Xin (Li Yuan), 23, is stressed out over whether or not to register for an important competition in a few days’ time; she’s also harrassed by her editor Zhang (Hua Shao) as well as stalked by rich man’s son Mike Du (Liu Xuetao) to marry him. Forced to take in a co-tenant to help pay the rent on her large flat, Leng Xin ends up with kooky Ai Yi (Chen Yi’na), 21, who was inspired by the cooking of her late grandmother (Guo Huali) to become an apprentic chef and wants to become rich and famous. Ai Yi, who loves eating, thinks she can “save” Leng Xin from her anorexia. She immediately redecorates the neat, severe flat in a colourful, more girly way and further annoys Leng Xin with her inedible cooking. After trying to get her to leave, she finally agrees to let Ai Yi stay if she can get rid of unwanted suitor Mike Du. Ai Yi does this by seducing him herself. On her 24th birthday, Leng Xin is forced to admit her photo studio has failed. Ai Yi cheers her up, taking her out on the town at zero cost to either of them. Leng Xin finally starts to appreciate Ai Yi’s qualities and the two become best friends. But Leng Xin still has to deal with her rejection of her own father (Wang Zhenhua), whom she’s always blamed for her mother’s death.
REVIEW
An anorexic, misophobic tomboy and a food-loving, girly kook are forced to share a flat in Lips and Soul 唇唇欲动, an odd-couple chickflick which is basically a rom-com between two young women. Stir in teaspoons of other genres (foodie films: the kook is a wannabe chef; media films: the tomboy is a studio photographer) and the movie ends up as a rich mixture, all set in a slightly rainbow-coloured, manga-like world seemingly aimed at teenie girls. Following in the wash of the equally chickflicky but star-driven (Fan Bingbing 范冰冰) vehicle One Night Surprise 一夜惊喜, and the success of Tiny Times 1 小时代 that redefined the chickflick market in the Mainland, Lips didn’t even register a blip at the box-office in summer 2013. But its slick technical finish and evident ambition still make it an interesting calling card by Inner Mongolia-born director Su Lun 苏伦, despite wearing out its welcome halfway with a one-note, episodic and virtually plotless format.
The script, from an original story by producer Gao Shan 高杉, is credited not to Su but to Ji Chuchen 冀楚忱, who previously worked on TV dramas (Star City 星光都市, 2011-12; 离爱, 2012); he’s even better known, however, as a lyricist for tomboy singer Li Yuchun 李宇春. As the photographer, model-turned-actress Li Yuan 李媛 (Groupie 果, 2009; Stand by Me 奋斗, 2011) is – by accident or design – given a hairstyle and demeanour just like the androgenous, severe Li. Unfortunately, she’s not not given much else of a character beyond moping around and hardly talking: her phobias aren’t developed in a really comic way and she spends most of the first hour raising her eyes to heaven as her girly flatmate blunders around. As the latter, TV’s Chen Yi’na 陈一娜 carries the film and provides most of its energy, bouncing around in a doll-like way, though her character is no more nuanced than Li’s. TV host Hua Shao 华少 pops up here and there to do his number as the photographer’s boss; ditto fellow TV presenter Liu Xuetao 刘雪涛, in another epicene male role as a fuerdai stalker.
Technically, the film is inventive and very slick, which earns it an extra point. After work experience with director Feng Xiaogang 冯小刚, Su entered The Central Academy of Drama in 2005, where she studied directing, before making a career in musicvideos and commercials. Lips uses the whole battery of technical tricks to keep things bouncing along, from split screen, jump cuts and colour manipulation to flashbacks, graphics and some progressive editing. By the halfway mark, however, they simply increase the feeling of a highly controlled, precision-mounted machine rather than a relationship movie with any genuine feeling beyond a girls-just-wanna-have-fun ethos. Another turn-off is the hard-rock score that accompanies the comic montages.
Exteriors, of which there aren’t many, were shot around Binzhou, northern Shandong province. The Chinese title, which literally means “Lips Desire to Move”, is the same as that of a 2006 song by Taiwan singer Cai Yilin 蔡依林; maybe more pertinently, it’s also the Chinese one used for the BBC lesbian drama Lip Service (2010-12).
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Century Chinese Culture Communication (CN), Binzhou Legend Cultural Industry (CN). Produced by Beijing Century Chinese Culture Communication (CN), Binzhou Legend Cultural Industry (CN), Binzhou Media Group (CN).
Script: Ji Chuchen. Original story: Gao Shan. Photography: Wang Xiaochun. Editing: Wang Chenglong. Music: Zhu Minghua. Art direction: Ma Shiqi. Costume design: Chen Jin. Fashion advice: Yang Xue. Sound: Li Qingshan. Special effects: Liu He. Post-production: Bao Bo.
Cast: Li Yuan (Leng Xin), Chen Yi’na (Ai Yi), Hua Shao (Zhang, editor), Liu Xuetao (Mike Du), Li Yiran (Tong Yan), Kou Kou (young Leng Xin), Guo Huali (Ai Yi’s grandmother), Wang Zhenhua (Leng Xin’s father), Xiang Hong (Leng Xin’s mother), Jing Zichen (young chef).
Release: China, 16 Aug 2013.