Better and Better

越来越好之村晚

China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.

Directors: Zhang Yibai 张一白, Xie Dongshen 谢東燊.

Rating: 6/10.

Name-studded, northern-style New Year comedy is often good-natured fun but rather lopsided.

STORY

Beijing, Dec 2012. Sun Xiangcheng (Huang Jue), a self-styled professional fan organiser, is called from his home village of West Well Valley by his mother Yuanfang (Wu Junru). Thinking he’s highly connected with celebrities, she asks him to help organise the village’s New Year celebrations. Sun Xiangcheng asks his friend, penniless labour contractor Xie Dafa (Guo Fucheng), also from the same village, to join him, as he’s a good dancer. But Sun Xiangcheng struggles to recruit any celebrities. Meanwhile, another ex-villager, Sun Guoshu (Wang Baoqiang), applies for a job as a cook at a five-star hotel and only by luck gets hired. I: The Literary Prize 文学大奖. In West Well Valley, local entrepreneur Geng Shanxi (Zhang Ze) – whose father, Geng Fugui (Wu Gang), is in love with Yuanfang – spots a chance to boost the village’s profile when he learns from the internet that his cousin, Geng Zhi (Tong Dawei), who’s recently returned after a decade in Beijing establishing himself as a writer, has been selected as an entrant in a prestigious literary competition. Sure that Geng Zhi will win, Geng Shanxi rouses the villagers to celebrate his forthcoming victory. However, the truth, which only Geng Zhi knows, is that all his books were self-published and the web story is fake. II: Trendy Dancing   style热舞. In Beijing, Xie Dafa spots his former village sweetheart, now ex-wife Liu Shufen (Xu Jinglei) and, thinking she is now wealthy, tries to tap her for some money and persuade her to return to the village with him for the New Year celebrations. When that fails, he tries courting her, pretending to be a wealthy businessman, with Sun Xiangcheng’s help. When Liu Shufen starts to believe that, according to the Mayan calendar, the world is going to end, Xie Defa’s plan looks like it may succeed. III: On the Tip of the Tongue 舌尖之上. While working as a cook at the hotel, Sun Guoshu gets to know Zhou Yi’nan (Wang Luodan), daughter of head chef Zhou Dakang (Liang Jiahui). Zhou Dakang gives Sun Guoshu a hard time, especially when the latter tries to show off his skills at cooking tasty country food. Sun Guoshu returns to the village to do more research, and when he returns to Beijing he accepts Zhou Dakang’s challenge to a cooking contest in order to win Zhou Yi’nan’s hand. Meanwhile, back in the village, prior to the New Year celebrations, Geng Fugui has an idea to finally win over Yuanfang.

REVIEW

The first fully-fledged Mainland attempt to replicate the traditional Hong Kong New Year comedy – albeit with a few Hong Kong stars and technical crew helping things along – Better and Better 越来越好之村晚 is an awkwardly structured movie that still has enough going for it if taken in the right spirit. Very different in its values – celebrating urban-rural common roots rather than just money, money, money – the movie is as aggressively northern in tone as its Hong Kong equivalents are southern, while still managing to end with a feel-good, ensemble finale. Packed to the gills with names large and small, and slickly directed by Zhang Yibai 张一白 and Xie Dongshen 谢东燊 (formerly known as Xie Dong 谢东, One Summer with You 与你同在的夏天, 2004), it won’t mean much to audiences who don’t recognise the raft of faces.

The script, finalised by Xu Zhengchao 徐正超 (Sad Fairy Tale 伤心童话, 2012), is basically three separate love stories plus a non-romantic parable about the price of phoney fame. After a scatter-gun opening that introduces most of the main characters, the film then settles down into the story of a writer who’s celebrated by his fellow-villagers as a successful novelist but is, in fact, nothing of the sort. The segment is an often witty spoof of “rural movies” and old-style message films; but it’s almost a mini-feature in its own right, and played in thick northern accents that make it very regional in flavour.

Much more accessible – and better suited to a CNY movie – are the straight love stories showcasing big names. The first, set in Beijing, features Hong Kong’s Guo Fucheng 郭富城 [Aaron Kwok] as a penniless labour contractor trying to re-romance his ex-wife (tartly played by Mainland actress-director 徐静蕾 Xu Jinglei) whom he thinks is loaded. This segment contains the best written dialogue and the most sustained playing between two major stars, with Guo visibly relaxed and Xu exceedingly so. Even better, however, and better directed, is the subsequent episode, a foodie/love story between a village cook (goofy comic Wang Baoqiang 王宝强, from Mr Tree Hello！树先生, 2010, and Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧, 2012) and a chef’s daughter (kooky-cute Wang Luodan 王珞丹, from My Airhostess Roommate 恋爱前规则, 2009, and Lethal Hostage 边境风云, 2012) that’s genuinely charming and always to the point, with added comic gravitas from Hong Kong veteran Liang Jiahui 梁家辉 [Tony Leung Ka-fai] as the pompous chef. The third love story is awkwardly interwoven through the whole film, with Hong Kong’s Wu Junru 吴君如 [Sandra Ng] and China’s Wu Gang 吴刚 having a lot of fun riffing on old-style peasant films but never really given a chance to build up a sustained head of steam.

Both skilled directors with roots in the quality mainstream and commercials, Zhang and Xie serve up a good-looking product (especially in the foodie/love story), rein in their cast from too much mugging in the broader sections, and know just when to throw in a silly sequence for fun: Guo and Xu doing a Gangnam Style street dance is a particular pleasure, as well as a village parody of dating shows. But the movie’s structure is very lopsided, with the writer story unbalancing the whole thing. Among the rest of the cast, Huang Jue 黄觉 (the male lead in Falling Flowers 萧红, 2012) shows a gift for comedy as a showbiz wannabe, and Tong Dawei (the Nationalist major in The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗, 2011) is suprisingly good as the guilt-ridden writer, while other names like Zhang Ziyi 章子怡 (as herself), Hong Kong’s Mo Wenwei 莫文蔚 [Karen Mok] (for one shot) and Vietnamese-Chinese actress Zhong Liti 钟丽缇 [Christy Chung] (in two scenes) are among the many cameos, most of them labelled on screen.

Though it had the misfortune to go up against mega-hit Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 西游  降魔篇 (2013), the dull box-office results for Better and Better suggest that the traditional, star-stacked CNY comedy may be a thing of the past, and certainly not suited to a huge, diverse and rapidly morphing market like modern-day China’s. (Even in Hong Kong, the genre is only being kept alive by the efforts of producer Huang Baiming 黄百鸣 [Raymond Wong].) With its handle, the Chinese title (literally, “Better and Better: The Village Evening”) seems to hint at a hoped-for franchise, but that may prove wishful thinking – or at least one that needs to be considerably re-thought.

CREDITS

Presented by China Film (CN), August First Film Studio (CN), Beijing Galloping Horse Film (CN), China Movie Channel (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN).

Script: Xu Zhengchao, Wang Hongkun, Wang Jinming, Liu Yingxue. Photography: Chen Chuqiang. Editing: Lin An’er [Angie Lam], Ma Zishan [Marco Mak], Chen Zhiwei [Andy Chan], Li Jiahua. Music: Huang Ailun [Alan Wong], Weng Weiying [Janet Yung]. Song music: Xiaoke. Vocal: Chen Yixun [Eason Chan]. Art direction: Li Yang. Costume design: Wu Lilu [Dora Ng]. Sound: Wang Danrong.

Cast: Liang Jiahui [Tony Leung Ka-fai] (Zhou Dakang), Wang Baoqiang (Sun Guoshu), Wang Luodan (Zhou Yi’nan, Zhou Dakang’s daughter), Guo Fucheng [Aaron Kwok] (Xie Defa), Wu Junru [Sandra Ng] (Yuanfang), Xu Jinglei (Liu Shufen, Xie Defa’s ex-wife), Tong Dawei (Geng Zhi/Geng Erdan), Ni Dahong (Geng Laohan, Geng Zhi’s father), Jing Tian (Liansheng, village director), Huang Jue (Sun Xiangcheng, Sun Guoshu’s elder brother), Zhang Ziyi (herself), Mo Wenwei [Karen Mok] (Geng Zhi’s Beijing girlfriend), Zhong Liti [Christy Chung] (Zhao, Liu Shufen’s employer), Wu Mochou (Little Spice, singer), Zhang Ze (Geng Shanxi), Wu Gang (Geng Fugui, Geng Shanxi’s father/Yuanfang’s lover), Zhou Tao (female MC), Zhu Jun (male MC), Lin Baoyi [Bowie Lam] (Yang, talent manager), Wang Peng (himself, juggler), Yue Hong (Yuanfang’s village friend), Fu Weng (Xie Defa’s co-worker), Kong Ergou (Xie Defa’s boss), Yi Nengjing [Annie Yi] (Guoshu’s job interviewer), Liu Hua (drunk hotel customer), Gao Cunshan (hotel manager), Liu Yiwei (Sun Xiangcheng’s talent manager friend), Zhang Yibai (Zhang Ziyi’s director friend), Xiaobao (first village kid), Lin Muran (second village kid), Yang Qing (village autograph hunter), Hua Shao (village dating show MC), Hou Tianlai (Uncle Wang, Yuanfang’s suitor), Lin Xue [Lam Suet] (Zhang, flat owner), Zhang Yishan (hotel cook), Na Wei (hotel manager), Li Ranran, Zhang Yongshou, Zhao Ruping (old village cooks), Tao Yuling (peasant woman), Ma Delin, Gao Longhe, Dong Lifan, Hou Yang, Pan Binlong, Ba Duo, Xiao Tang Yuan, Li Xiaozhou, Ma Jingwu, Liang Tian, Guo Da, Mo Qi, Cui Zhigang, Lai Xi, Zhang Zifeng.

Release: China, 10 Feb 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 5 Apr 2013.)