My Boyfriends
我的男男男男朋友
China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins.
Director: Zhao Chongji 赵崇基 [Derek Chiu].
Rating: 5/10.
Mainland actress Xie Na works hard in this Beijing rom-com but is let down by an episodic script.
STORY
Beijing, the present day. After being dumped by her boyfriend (Yin Xiaotian) of 10 years, gastrobar manageress Xie Wenting (Xie Na), who’s almost 30 and looking to settle down, decides never to put all her eggs in one basket again when it comes to potential husbands. At a birthday party at the bar arranged for one of the three young daughters of wealthy businessman Wang Yongcheng (Hu Bing), Xie Wenting is jokingly asked by him if she would like to become the kids’ step-mother. To help out her best friend Jingjing (He Jingjing), Xie Wenting dresses up as Ultraman at a cosplay event, where she is nervously chatted up by super-geeky fan Li Bowen (Yi Seung-hyeon). However, he can only talk to her when she’s role-playing. One night at her bar Xie Wenting meets well-known singer Chen Han (Liu Lingfei), who takes a shine to her. When the lights suddenly fail, she has words with the young electrician who’s been trying for some time to mend the fault. She recognises him as Zheng Hao (Wang Dongcheng), with whom she travelled from their hometown of Shaxian, down south in Fujian province, 10 years ago to seek their fortunes in Beijing. When Zheng Hao suddenly has to find a new flat, he becomes saddled with one of his former flat-sharers, Xie Xiao’ou (Xie Yilin), who has romantic designs on him. By chance, the two end up renting a flat next to Xie Wenting, who is starting to despair of ever finding the right partner.
REVIEW
Made at a time when perky TV actress/host Xie Na 谢娜 was still trying to forge a career as a movie lead, My Boyfriends 我的男男男男朋友 is a fairly routine Beijing rom-com seemingly aimed at Gen-80ers looking to settle down. In retrospect it was the last throw of the dice by Xie, then 32, at big-screen lead roles – which is a shame, as both here and in the earlier Rose War of Nana 娜娜的玫瑰战争 (shot in 2008, released in 2010) the Sichuan-born actress showed she could carry a movie with her forthright, physical style. But though she works hard at making her role – a soon-to-be-30 gastrobar manageress who can’t decide between various suitors – into an involving character, the screenplay, by no less than seven writers, is too episodic, with no clear dramatic line. It flopped at the Mainland box office with only RMB7.8 million.
One problem is that the three men in her life are all very self-centred: a rich businessman looking for a stepmother-cum-nanny for his three young daughters, a cosplay geek who can’t even hold a conversation with a woman out of fancy dress, and a singer who’s totally in love with himself. As a result the ending is hardly a surprise, with a former pal who’s been around all along. Xie’s energy keeps the film moving but the film-makers don’t seem to have much faith in her as a solo lead, with chunks of the movie given over to Taiwan comedienne Xie Yilin 谢依霖 plugging her TV personality as style anti-diva Miss Lin, aka hold主姐. (By the time Boyfriends was released, Xie had hit the big time earlier that year with the first two Tiny Times 小时代 films, though Boyfriends was actually shot prior. Xie ended up even being downplayed on the poster.)
The film reunites Xie with South Korean boybander Yi Seung-hyeon 이승현 | 李承铉, her costar in Nana, who, as the cosplay geek, does more than just stand there and look pretty this time (and again is re-voiced well into Mandarin) but is such a hopeless suitor that the relationship makes no sense at all. As the guy who’s been there all along – but pursued by Lin’s pushy character – Taiwan boybander Wang Dongcheng 汪东城, who’d debuted in the psychodrama The Purple House 紫宅 (2011), again mistakes mumblecore acting à la compatriot Chen Bolin 陈柏霖 as a performance and, like Lin, has a distracting Taiwan accent. (This is kind-of explained by him coming from a town down south in Fujian province.) As the heroine’s best friend, actress-singer He Jingjing 何晶晶 (The Purple House) cuts a likeable, natural character.
Hong Kong director Zhao Chongji 赵崇基 [Derek Chiu] (Mr. Sardine 沙甸鱼杀人事件, 1994; rom-com Frugal Game 悭钱家族, 2002) directs okay on a technical level, aided by compatriots Lin An’er 林安儿 [Angie Lam] and Feng Yuanwen 冯远文 [Edmond Fung] on editing and photography, though there’s no real feel for Beijing as a city or any personal signature to raise the material. After his flawed period pictures Road to Dawn 夜•明 (2007) and 72 Martyrs 英雄喋血 (2011) – both about past revolutionary heroes – the modern-day Boyfriends put an end to the Mainland career of Zhao, who also didn’t direct another film for five years (Hong Kong indie No. 1 Chung Ying Street 中英街1号, 2018).
On posters the film’s English title is given as My Boy4 Friends (to mirror the Chinese one, literally “My Boyboyboyboyfriends”), but on the film itself it is just My Boyfriends.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Waray Arts International Culture Media (CN), Beijing JY Entertainment (CN), Dongyang Zhanlong Zhufeng Film & TV Culture Communication (CN), Beijing Zhongding Huayu Entertainment (CN). Produced by Beijing Waray Arts International Culture Media (CN).
Script co-ordination: Zheng Dongshu. Script: Feng Guangwei, Huang Mengyao, Zhang Junhan, Huang Shundian, Zhang Jihong. Script adaptation: Li Weisi. Photography: Feng Yuanwen [Edmond Fung]. Editing: Lin An’er [Angie Lam]. Music: Liang Weile. Music direction: Yu Gang. Art direction: Meng Cheng. Styling: Zhuo Lin (general), Wang Lutan (for Xie Na). Sound: Xing Ding. Visual effects: Zhang Sheng. Executive direction: Ou Fan.
Cast: Xie Na (Xie Wenting), Wang Dongcheng (Zheng Hao), Yi Seung-hyeon (Li Bowen), He Jingjing (Jingjing), Xie Yilin (Xie Xiao’ou), Weng Yan (Jiayi), Liu Lingfei (Chen Han), Hu Bing (Wang Yongcheng), Yin Xiaotian (Xie Wenting’s boyfriend), Lei Ruo’er (Ma Xiaotian, Jingjing’s boyfriend).
Release: China, 15 Nov 2013.