Happiness around the Corner

幸福马上来

China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 90 mins.

Directors: Feng Gong 冯巩, Cui Junjie 崔俊杰.

Rating: 7/10.

Gentle social satire marks a likeable return to big-screen leading roles by stand-up comic Feng Gong.

STORY

Chongqing, central China, the present day. Ma Shanglai (Feng Gong) specialises in mediating people’s disputes and problems. Just prior to his retirement, and against the wishes of his wife (Niu Li) who wants him to spend more time at home with her and their teenage son (Liu Haoran), he decides to set up an official office, Ma Shanglai Mediation Workshop 马尚来调解工作室. However, a professional fraudster, Ma Xuewang (Tu Songyan), registers the company name first and tries to steal Ma Shanglai’s brand name away from him. Despite a disastrous launch – after an old schoolmate, Jin Zhen (Mao Junjie), deliberately ruins his opening ceremony – Ma Xuewang starts stealing away Ma Shanglai’s business. Ma Shanglai is also kicked out of home by his wife, who then recycles all the work papers he needs to write a book he’s been contracted for. Ma Shanglai’s young female assistant Lulu (Zhang Xiaofei) offers him her room in a flatshare. When her flatmate turns out to be Jin Zhen, and Ma Xuewang sees them together when he drops by to see her, he jumps to the wrong conclusion. To allay suspicions, Ma Shanglai moves out and goes to stay in the luxurious flat of Ma Xuewang. Both of them end up on opposite sides of a mediation case, in which businessman Jiang Bian (Xia Fan) wants to divorce his wife (Song Ning) on the grounds that she had chin surgery without telling him. Meanwhile, Ma Xuewang, annoyed that Jin Zhen prefers Ma Shanglai to him, tries to sow discord in Ma Shanglai’s marriage by suggesting he’s having an affaire with Jin Zhen. The two men continue to have professional face-offs, first in the case of a young widow (Jiang Hongbo) holding out against property developers, and then in the case of a father (Liang Chao) whose son (Guan Zhe) has “internet addiction”.

REVIEW

Goofy-looking stand-up comic Feng Gong 冯巩, 60, proves his style of gentle social satire is still relevant in today’s Mainland film industry with Happiness around the Corner 幸福马上来, a nicely mounted version of the kind of comedy, deeply rooted in everyday urban life, that flourished during the 1990s and early 2000s but has largely vanished during the past decade’s rush to market. It’s no surprise that one of the best exponents of that genre, writer-director Huang Jianxin 黄建新 (Stand Up, Don’t Bend Over 站直啰  别趴下, 1992), is credited as creative producer 监制: Feng frequently acted in Huang’s movies and the two worked together on Feng’s solo directing debut Eat Hot Tofu Slowly 心急吃不了热豆腐 (2005). Feng’s first leading film role for over a decade, and old-fashioned in the best kind of way, Happiness hawled in a respectable, if no more, RMB101 million this summer.

As with his only other directing gig, A Big Potato 别拿自己不当干部 (2007), Feng co-directs with a more experienced technical hand – in this case comedy specialist Cui Junjie 崔俊杰, 47, best known for his yokels-in-the-big-city film series that started with 4 Idiots 山炮进城 (2015). Scaling down the comic exaggeration to fit Feng’s more naturalistic style, Cui delivers a fine-looking package that doesn’t get in the way of the characters but still uses occasional tricks (such as Feng’s character stepping out of the story early on) to make the movie seem relevant. Especially noteworthy is the sharp widescreen photography by Cao Wei 曹伟, who’s largely worked in TV, as well as the neatly composed aerial inserts that show Chongqing in an unfamiliar way.

The plot hooks a timely ride on the increasingly disputatious nature of Mainland society: Feng’s character, Ma Shanglai, is an acknowledged specialist in mediating disputes, but one day even his sang-froid is challenged when a fraudster tries to steal his brand name. In a society that runs (or should run) on consensus, the theme of mediation is always a timely one; it formed the basis of a fine but now little-known black comedy, Three T Company 顽主 (1988, aka The Trouble-Shooters), in which three friends formed an agency to solve other people’s problems; and similar types of character have cropped up in other films over the years (often played by comedian Fan Wei 范伟). Unlike Three T, however, Happiness focuses not so much on its protagonist making a business success of his talent – money is never mentioned in the film – but on the ironic situations into which it brings him.

Happiness is a true comedy of the absurd, from its corkscrew plot developments to dialogue non-sequiturs – all delivered with a straight face and utter naturalism. The extra comic twist is that the film is set in a neighbourhood of Chongqing, central China, with chunks of the dialogue delivered in the native patois. Feng has played with dialect and accents before (Eat Hot Tofu Slowly was set in Baoding, southwest of Beijing) but never quite as extreme as this: the opening minutes even devote time to how to insult someone in various dialects.

The whole cast seems effortlessly tuned to the same wavelength, from Niu Li 牛莉, 46, as Ma Shanglai’s frustrated but still patient wife, to Tu Songyan 涂松岩, 43, as the pretender to his mediating throne. The younger cast members fit in equally well, including female lead Mao Junjie 毛俊杰, 34, in more than just a decorative film role for a change as Ma Shanglai’s ally, and Liu Haoran 刘昊然, 20, from the Detective Chinatown 唐人街探案 films, as his casually unconcerned son. Name cameos – by people like Jia Ling 贾玲 (as an argumentative wife), Yue Yunpeng 岳云鹏 (tubby conman), Pan Binlong 潘斌龙 (demolition boss) – don’t disrupt the flow as the plot has a sense of purpose rather than just being a string of comic turns. Feng’s likeable, everyman persona very much sets the film’s rhythm.

On posters, but not on the film itself, the English title is Happiness Is Coming. The film’s Chinese title, xìngfú măshàng lái (“Happiness Coming Right Up”), incorporates a pun on the name of the main character, Ma Shanglai.

CREDITS

Presented by Chongqing Film Group (CN), Bona Film Group (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Dimension Films (CN), Zhejiang Haifu Culture Media (CN), China Movie Channel (CN). Produced by Chongqing Film Group (CN), Bona Film Group (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Dimension Films (CN), Zhejiang Haifu Culture Media (CN), China Movie Channel (CN).

Script: Wang Hongkun, Guo Junhao. Photography: Cao Wei. Editing: Guan Zhe, Wang Junxi. Music: Bai Haoyu. Art direction: Wang Gang. Sound: Yang Jingyi. Action: Fan Gengchang. Visual effects: Ma Ding (Illumina). Choreography: Feng Jingya, Bi Gang. Special advice: Shu Huan. Executive direction: Wang Qiang.

Cast: Feng Gong (Ma Shanglai), Mao Junjie (Jin Zhen), Niu Li (Jialing, Ma Shanglai’s wife), Tu Songyan (Mao Xuewang), Liu Haoran (Ma Xiao, Ma Shanglai’s son), Jiang Hongbo (Sun Erxiang, young widow), Jia Ling (Jia Ling, quarrelsome wife), Bai Kainan (Gangzi, Ma Shanglai’s male assistant), Zhang Xiaofei (Lulu, Ma Shanglai’s female assistant), Xia Fan (Jiang Bian), Fang Qingping (Guangtou/Baldy), Jiao Haihua (Liu Dehua, quarrelsome husband), Wang Dazhi (recycling collector), Gong Hanlin (street director), Xue Haojing (Xiaoli, Mao Xuewang’s secretary), Hou Linlin (Linlin, Mao Xuewang’s driver), Song Ning (Jiang Bian’s wife), Zhao Yaping (Jiang Bian’s mistress), Liang Tian (Jiang Bian’s father), Yue Yunpeng (tubby conman), Wang Cheng (thin conman), Guo Donglin (plastic surgeon), Pan Binlong (demolition boss), Wang Tongtong (property developer), Bi Gang (gay guy), Liang Chao (Wang Yu), Guan Zhe (Wang Xu, Wang Yu’s son), Fang Yuan (Wang Xu’s girlfriend), Zhang Wan’er (young Jin Zhen), Wang Hongkun (doctor).

Release: China, 8 Jun 2018.