Crazy New Year’s Eve

一路惊喜

China/Hong Kong, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 107 mins.

Directors: Jin Yimeng 金依萌 [Eva Jin], Pan Anzi 潘安子, Zhang Jiarui 章家瑞, Song Di 宋迪.

Rating: 7/10.

Collection of CNY stories is more entertaining in bits than as a whole.

STORY

China, the present day, Lunar New Year’s Eve. In Beijing, superstar singer Xiao Jingming (Xiao Jingteng) rushes to hospital with his pregnant wife, former champion gymnast Li Nana (Zhao Liying), who’s giving birth a month early. The news breaks on social media, and reporters gather to await the birth. Xiao Jingming has been warned he has to perform at that night’s New Year Gala, but he’s also promised to attend his wife’s delivery. In Xi’an, central China, beauty-salon tycoon Shen Dabao (Da Peng) is forced to take a crowded train to Beijing, as all the flights are full. After failing to secure a sleeper from the conductress (Mei Ting), the precious Dabao and his assistant Wu Liang (Qiao Shan) find themselves next to Sichuan peasant Xiao Zhao (Sun Yizhou), whom they then accuse of stealing Dabao’s wallet. In Sanya, Hainan Island, southern China, a small group of young people gathers for a five-day adventure holiday, led by tour guide Fu (Jiang Jinfu). After a spell on the beach, things go seriously wrong when they’re apparently kidnapped by a murderer and lose their way in a forest after escaping. In Beijing, Mainland cop Zhong Wei (Xia Yu) and Hong Kong cop Zhang Jialun (Lin Jiadong) are on the trail of wanted criminal Hou Xiaogang (Zhang Yi). They finally arrest him at the flat of his aged grandmother (Li Bin), with whom he’d promised to spend New Year’s Eve. In Harbin, northeast China, the sons and daughters of Old He (Niu Ben) gather at the hospital where he is seriously ill but immediately start arguing about a care rota and financial arrangements after his death. In Shanghai, wedding planner Chen Jiayi (Guo Caijie) is nagged on the phone by her mother Yue (Tian Li) about marrying her longtime boyfriend Zheng Weili (Feng Xiaoyue), who has a phobia about getting hitched. She plans a romantic dinner at home, but then everything goes wrong.

REVIEW

The parts are better than the whole in Crazy New Year’s Eve 一路惊喜, an ambitious attempt to make the ultimate Mainland CNY movie by intercutting six separate stories, set all over China. Produced, co-written and lead directed by Jin Yimeng 金依萌 [Eva Jin] (Sophie’s Revenge 非常完美, 2009; One Night Surprise 一夜惊喜, 2013), along with two DPs and three other directors (including Pan Anzi 潘安子, The Palace 宫  锁沉香, 2013, and veteran Zhang Jiarui 章家瑞, The Road 芳香之旅, 2005), it has a stylistically neutral feel despite the various hands involved but, with almost no connection between the stories, doesn’t develop the kind of ensemble celebration expected of a Lunar New Year entertainment. Also, despite the promise of the Chinese title – which roughly means “Surprises All the Way”, punning on Jin’s previous movie, the rom-com One Night Surprise – there are precious few unexpected developments to perk up the going.

Despite all that, it remains a watchable confection thanks to a strong cast that makes up for its shortage of big-star wattage with excellent character playing. Crazy is the latest attempt to come up with a Mainland version of the traditional Hong Kong CNY ensemble movie, though the attempts to clone the formula have so far been hit and miss (e.g. Better and Better 越来越好之村晚, 2013) thanks to the large differences between the two territories. The Hong Kong template of assembling as many big names as possible, and celebrating money and success, grew out of its onetime studio contact system, and worked in a place and entertainment industry that was essentially one big offshore Cantonese village holding on to traditional values. However, in a country as vast and diverse as China, it’s difficult to make the same formula work, and Crazy, like Better, opts for separate stories to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. Unlike Better, it lacks an ensemble finale to bring the various strands together.

The stories span the warm south to the frozen north, as well as genres including comedy, youth, horror, crime and social drama. Weakest is the youth yarn set down south in sunny Sanya, Hainan Island, where a group of youngsters on an adventure holiday get lost in a forest after escaping from a supposed kidnapper-murderer. The strongest, in terms of a concise short-story format, are the Shanghai story (a professional wedding planner tries to seduce her longtime boyfriend into tying the knot) and the one set on a crowded train between Xi’an and Beijing (in which a nouveau-riche tycoon is thrown together with “ordinary” people). The former has some fine rom-com chemistry between Taiwan actors Guo Caijie 郭采洁 [Amber Kuo] and Feng Xiaoyue 凤小岳 [Rhydian Vaughan], while the latter squeezes social satire out of casting actor-director-singer Da Peng 大鹏 (aka Dong Chengpeng 董成鹏) as a louche snob opposite TV-theatre pinup Sun Yizhou 孙艺洲 as a scruffy Sichuan peasant.

More socially didactic are the story of two cops hunting a wanted criminal in Beijing, with Xia Yu 夏雨 and Hong Kong’s Lin Jiadong 林家栋 [Gordon Lam] nicely teamed in an odd-couple way, and the story of a northeastern family torn by bickering as their father lies dying in hospital. These two strands have a considerably tougher, more realistic flavour, with the latter epecially at odds with the rest of the film, despite fine performances from actors like Niu Ben 牛奔 (as the lecturing paterfamilias) and Li Qinqin 李勤勤 (as the put-upon eldest daughter).

Vaguely tying the whole film together is the story of a superstar singer (Taiwan’s Xiao Jingteng 萧敬腾) torn between performing in a Beijing New Year Gala and being with his pregnant wife (TV actress Zhao Liying 赵丽颖) during delivery. But it’s a tenuous device at best, and doesn’t help smooth the bumps of cross-cutting between storylines that are totally different in mood. Professional work by Hong Kong composer Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam] and editor Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Cheung Ka-fai] help as much as possible in giving the movie a unified feel, but Crazy is best enjoyed as a series of individual performances – many of which have moving moments of their own, despite the script getting very didactic near the end. Among the smaller roles, Mei Ting 梅婷 (Aspirin 阿司匹林, 2006; Blind Massage 推拿, 2014) stands out as the train conductress with her own personal problems and Chinese American actress Wu Yanyan 吴妍妍 [Janet Wu], daughter of late director-producer Wu Tianming 吴天明, is funny as a no-nonsense obstetrician.

As the six stories are interwoven, they’re not identified with captions on screen. In the end titles, however, they are named as The Superstar Story 大明星故事, The Proposal Story 求婚故事, The Travelling Story 旅行故事, The Policemen Story 警察故事, The Train Story 火车故事 and The Family Get-Together Story 大团圆故事. Identifying which of the four directors and two cameramen did what is almost impossible, though from look and tone it seems likely that Jin herself shot the Shanghai story with Taiwan d.p. Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che] (Tiny Times 小时代) and that Pan shot the Beijing segments with Hong Kong d.p. Zou Lianyou 邹连友 [Davy Tsou] (Once a Gangster 飞砂风中转, 2010; The Palace). Behind big specs and lots of hair, Jin herself cameos as a geeky neighbour in the Shanghai story.

CREDITS

Presented by Draw and Shoot Films (CN), Media Asia Film Production (HK), Wanda Media (CN), China Movie Channel (CN), Beijing HG & Injo Culture Investment Management (CN), Zhejiang Unique Media (CN), Young Art Pioneer (CN). Produced by Draw and Shoot Films (CN).

Script: Jin Yimeng [Eva Jin], Zhang Yifan. Photography: Zou Lianyou [Davy Tsou], Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Zhang Jiahui [Cheung Ka-fai], Wu Qiong. Music: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Theme song: Jin Peida [Peter Kam], Lin Xi. Vocal: Xiao Jingteng. Production design: Ma Shiqi, Zhao Xuehao, Li Deya. Costumes: Lin Yuan, Liu Ning, Wang Bing. Costume consultation: Meng Fan. Sound: Zhao Nan, Yang Jiang. Visual effects: Li Jiyang, Zheng Wenzheng (Creasun).

Cast: Xiao Jingteng (Xiao Jingming, superstar), Zhao Liying (Li Nana, Xiao Jingming’s wife), Mei Ting (Zhang Weiwei, train conductress), Da Peng [Dong Chengpeng] (Shen Dabao, beauty-salon tycoon), Sun Yizhou (Xiao Zhao, Sichuan peasant), Qiao Shan (Wu Liang, Shen Dabao’s assistant), Jiang Jinfu (Fu/”Six-Pack”, Sanya tour guide), Zhang Xinyuan (Shen Xiaoou), Kan Qingzi (Li Anqi/Angel), Liu Wei (Xiang Rong), Xia Yu (Zhong Wei, Beijing police detective), Lin Jiadong [Gordon Lam] (Zhang Jialun, Hong Kong police detective), Zhang Yi (Hou Xiaogang, wanted man), Niu Ben (Old He, paterfamilias), Li Qinqin (He Ping, eldest sister), Liu Jinshan (He An, third brother), Gao Qiang (He Yong, second brother), Gong Hanlin (He Xing, fourth brother, sausage seller), Jin Zhu (Jin Aiai, He Xing’s wife), Lin Peng (He Tao, fifth brother), Yuan Ran (He Yuan, little sister), Guo Caijie [Amber Kuo] (Chen Jiayi), Feng Xiaoyue [Rhydian Vaughan] (Zheng Weili/Willie, Chen Jiayi’s boyfriend), Jin Yimeng [Eva Jin] (Wang Xiaoxin, Chen Jiayi’s geeky female neighbour), Tian Li (Yue, Chen Jiayi’s mother), Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing (Li, new year gala director), Bai Ke (Wang Dachui, Chen Jiayi’s geeky male neighbour), Gabriella (female entertainment reporter), Lan Yan (Win, Zhang Jialun’s girlfriend), Wu Yanyan [Janet Wu] (Dr. Luo), Su Mang (Li Mangmang, Nana’s elder sister), Li Guyi, Cao Yunjin, Liu Yuntian (themselves), Xu Juncong (male entertainment reporter), An Yu, Lin Jin, Geng Biwei (other entertainment reporters), Sun Qichao (He Niannian, the child performer), Gao Xing (Cao Dafu), Tang Xiaolu (Yue’s assistant), Cao Junhua (driver), Xu Lingyue (kindergarten teacher), Yu Na (mother), Ian Brody (baby), Wang Yajing (patient), Zhao Moyan, Zhang Yi’nan, Li Meng (nurses), Li Longjun (Shanghai delivery man), Zhao Xi (Fu’s father), Qin Yue (Fu’s mother), Han Mei (Xiang Rong’s mother), Zhang Ning (Li Anqi’s mother), Zhao Fanghua (“Wild Game” Wang), Li Bin (Hou Xiaogang’s grandmother), Liu Yujia (Beijing shop clerk), Peng Ziyang (Lin, train security officer), Guan Haowen (boyfriend on train), Wang Yingshan (girlfriend on train), Johnny Lorenz Rossen (Zhang Weiwei’s son), Ji Qin (old woman), Zeng Fanhua (man with bag), Zhang Gang (allergic man), Zhang Yao (man with mobile phone), Xu Pengfei (He Xing’s son), Jiang Xinyue (He Tao’s daughter), Zhou Bichang, Fan Bingbing, Yang Mi (themselves).

Release: China, 6 Feb 2015; Hong Kong, 24 Jun 2015.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 7 Apr 2015.)