An Inspector Calls

浮华宴

Hong Kong/China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 86 mins.

Directors: Huang Baiming 黄百鸣 [Raymond Wong], Qiu Litai 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau].

Rating: 4/10.

Misconceived version of J.B. Priestley’s classic play, as a CNY spoof comedy.

STORY

At the mansion of the Qiu family, final preparations are in hand for the lavish engagement party of Qiu Manli (Wu Qianyu), the spoiled daughter of industrialist Qiu Ming (Zeng Zhiwei), to Qi Shichang (Zhang Han), the rich son of his chief competitor. Despite appearances, Qiu Ming is actually broke and needs the wedding to be a success. Out of the blue, Senior Detective-Inspector Jia (Gu Tianle) arrives and announces that a young woman, Zhang Xiaojuan (Zhou Xiuna), has been found dead, from suicide. He claims to have her diary in his possession. When the inspector reminds Qiu Ming that she used to work at his factory, Qiu Ming recalls how she was nominated by the workers to demand a pay rise and how he later sacked her. The inspector says Zhang Xiaojuan then worked under the name Meifen at a luxury goods shop called Famous Store, at which Qiu Manli was a regular customer. Qiu Manli remembers how she demanded the young woman be sacked, following a tiff. The inspector says Zhang Xiaojuan then worked under the name Baixue (“Snow”) as a prostitute at a club frequented by Qi Shichang. In his defence, Qi Shichang remembers how he in fact helped her escape that life and looked after her, with no sex involved; but then one day Baixue suddenly disappeared. Qiu Manli is shocked at the revelation about her fiance. Guo Wanyi (Liu Yan), the girlfriend of Qiu Ming’s wastrel son Qiu Tianfu (Lin Jiadong) and the daughter of the chairman of International Finance Corporation, then arrives. She remembers the dead young woman once worked as her personal assistant. The inspector then jogs the memory of Qiu Ming’s wife, Qiu Li Anxin (Mao Shunyun), who recalls how, as chairwoman of the Women’s Aid Association, she was visited two months ago by the young woman, then using the name Zhang Meiling, and rejected her application for aid for her and her baby. The inspector then reveals Meiling’s real name was Wang Zixin, a masseuse whom Qiu Tianfu had earlier fallen for and started living with. He stole money from his father’s safe to support her but one day she suddenly disappeared. The inspector points out how all of them had a hand, metaphorically, in the young woman’s death.

REVIEW

Whatever was going through the minds of producer-director Huang Baiming 黄百鸣 [Raymond Wong] and his writer son Huang Zihuan 黄子桓 [Edmond Wong] when they decided to adapt British writer J.B. Priestley’s classic play about class hypocrisy and social exploitation into a knockabout CNY comedy will forever remain a mystery. Huang Baiming claims he’s been a fan of the the three-act play (premiered in Moscow in 1945 and in the UK in 1946) for 30 years, and the film’s end titles proudly point out how it’s still taught in British schools as an exam text. But as a version of Priestley’s work, An Inspector Calls 浮华宴 is a complete travesty, eliminating its original message and drawing cheap laughs from a Chinese cast hamming their way through outdated English stereotypes. All that aside, and looked at purely as a CNY comedy, it’s only mildly amusing, with no real chemistry between the mixed Hong Kong/Mainland cast and the huge number of cameos simply underlining the lack of any true ensemble.

The three-act play, set in the house of a North Midlands mill owner in 1912, blends black humour and straight drama as a mysterious police officer, Inspector Goole, visits the family during a dinner celebration for the impending marriage of the businessman’s daughter to his competitor’s son. After announcing that a young woman, Eva Smith, who used to work at one of the industrialist’s mills has been found dead, Goole gradually implicates each of the five people as indirectly responsible for her suicide, before leaving as suddenly as he arrived. Like the only other film version – a solid 1954 B&W one, adapted by Desmond Davis and directed by Guy Hamilton – the Huangs’ preserves the play’s famous open ending and the mystery of Goole’s identity, as well as the single setting; also like the 1954 film, it opens up the action with flashbacks to when each of the five encountered the young woman and added to her misfortunes.

That’s all, however, that the two movies have in common. Where the British film preserves the snobbish, Edwardian setting, the Huangs’ transfers it to a timeless, super-rich mansion decorated with retro extravagance – all gold columns, flashy finery and ornate bad taste. Even that could have worked as social satire, but the characters the Huangs fill it with are straight out of Cantonese pastiche comedy: Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] as a Chaplinesque inspector with a pipe and trenchcoat, forever extracting the dead girl’s diary from the depths of his clothing; Zeng Zhiwei 曾志伟 [Eric Tsang] as a chirruping, coiffeured hysteric; Mao Shunyun 毛舜筠 [Teresa Mo] in a regal white wig and with attitude to match; Lin Jiadong 林家栋 [Gordon Lam] unrecognisable beneath ragged locks as their hopeless, drunken son; Wu Qianyu 吴千语 (from the Huang Baiming-produced Magic to Win 开心魔法, 2011) pallid in what should be one of the key roles, as the spoiled daughter; and Mainland actor Zhang Han (No Limit 无极限之危情速递, 2011; Youth Never Returns 既然青春留不住, 2015) equally colourless as her rich fiance.

For the character of the dead woman – highly visible in the 1954 film’s flashbacks – the Huangs have taken the curious decision to keep her face largely off-camera, thus rendering any discussion of the performance by Zhou Xiuna 周秀娜 unnecessary. Again, that decision could have worked well: the character is unseen in the original play, and thus open to the audience’s imagination. But again the pantomime performances by the main cast render the decision pointless. Adding more distraction are the spot-the-face cameos in the flashbacks: Huang Baiming himself in six roles (including a camp shop manager and female secretary), Zhen Zidan 甄子丹 [Donnie Yen] as an entire pop quartet, and so on. Mainland actress Liu Yan 柳岩 (Jianbing Man 煎饼侠, 2015) pops up as a character who doesn’t exist in the play – the wealthy girlfriend of the family’s son.

For only one aspect does this Inspector deserve mention – the imaginative production design by Hong Kong veteran He Jianxiong 何剑雄 [Cyrus Ho] (The Storm Riders 风云之雄霸天下, 1998; Shaolin Soccer 少林足球, 2001; Mural 画壁, 2011) in the flashbacks, especially a giant Metropolis-like set for the industrialist’s factory that harks back to an earlier, unfettered age in Hong Kong movies. But that alone is not enough to rescue the whole misconceived undertaking.

The film was the last by veteran d.p. Chen Guanghong 陈广鸿 [Joe Chan], who died on 17 Dec 2014, aged 51, from an accident while filming the Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan] vehicle Skiptrace 绝地逃亡 (2016). Chen shot over 90 films in all genres, including several recently for prolific d.p.-turned-director Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau], who’s credited with co-direction on Inspector. The Chinese title for the film’s Hong Kong release means “The Glitzy Banquet”; in the Mainland the co-production was released as the less fanciful 神探驾到, a translation of the original play’s title.

CREDITS

Presented by Pegasus Motion Pictures (HK), Guangzhou Big Honor Entertainment (CN). Produced by Pegasus Motion Pictures (HK).

Script: Huang Zihuan [Edmond Wong]. Play: J.B. Priestley. Photography: Chen Guanghong [Joe Chan]. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Mai Zhenhong [Brother Hung]. Production design: He Jianxiong [Cyrus Ho]. Costume design: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: Guo Zhiwen. Action: Li Zhongzhi [Nicky Li]. Visual effects: Chen Zhidao, Li Zifei (Herbgarden).

Cast: Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (Jia/Karl, the senior detective-inspector), Zeng Zhiwei [Eric Tsang] (Qiu Ming, the father), Mao Shunyun [Teresa Mo] (Qiu Li Anxin/Anson, Qiu Ming’s wife), Zhang Han (Qi Shichang/Johnnie, Qiu Manli’s fiance), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Qiu Tianfu/Tim, Qiu Ming’s son), Zhou Xiuna (Zhang Xiaojuan/Cindy; Meifen/Mavis; Baixue/Snow; Guo Wanyi’s assistant; Zhang Meiling/May; Wang Zixin/Jean), Wu Qianyu (Qiu Manli/Sherry, Qiu Ming’s daughter), Liu Yan (Guo Wanyi/Yvonne, Qiu Tianfu’s girlfriend), Huang Baiming [Raymond Wong] (factory foreman; clothes shop manager; Shao Shijin, Qi Shichang’s uncle; barman; female secretary; tattooed man), Zhan Qiqing [Jessica Jann] (Qiu Manli’s friend), Zhen Zidan [Donnie Yen] (pop quartet), Chen Huilin [Kelly Chen] (Zhen/Jane, police inspector), Luo Lan (old housemaid), Yuan Qiongdan (Mrs. Liang), Jiang Meiyi (Mrs. Zhao), Guan Baohui (Mrs. Zhang), Xie Tianhua (athletic waiter), Lu Mixue (nightclub manageress), Lin Dexin (Four-Eyed Frog), Zhuang Siming (barman’s girlfriend), Tan Bingwen, Luo Yingjun (brothel clients), Zhang Songwen (Qi Shichang’s elder brother, brothel client), Li Huimin (Snow), Chan Jing (Sexy), Zhang Daming (Sexy’s boyfriend), Deng Lixin [Stephy Tang] (Guo Wanyi’s assistant), Liu Xinyou [Annie Liu] (worker), Huang Younan (Huang, detective), Xu Jingwen (Zhenni/Jenny).

Release: China, 6 Feb 2015; Hong Kong, 19 Feb 2015.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 11 Jul 2015.)