Airpocalypse
天气预爆
China, 2018, 2.35:1, colour, 100 mins.
Director: Xiao Yang 肖央.
Rating: 3/10.
Lazily written vehicle for/by comic Xiao Yang is a big step down after his Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon.
STORY
A city in northern China, the present day. The practice of Ma Le (Xiao Yang), a quack psychologist who specialises in “suicide intervention”, has been thriving, due to a long-term haze over the city that has been causing mass depression. One night he’s summoned by Bai Xuejing (Xiaoshenyang) – the richest man in northern China thanks to his company’s air purifiers – who claims to be the God of Thunder and predicts everyone will die in seven days’ time. Ma Le thinks he is crazy and should be committed. The next day, while trying again to romance traffic policewoman Cai Ming (Du Juan) whom he bumped into the previous night, Ma Le is knocked unconscious by the God of Longevity (Wang Xiaoli) and inhales some of his celestial spirit. The God of Longevity is searching for his grandson Yun Baobao, aka Auspicious Cloud, whom he brought to watch the 2008 Olympics. He says the recent haze is caused by the God of Thunder dispersing Auspicious Cloud into a haze in order to cover Heaven’s Eye, at which time the God of Thunder will destroy life on Earth – to which he was banished 5,000 years ago by the Jade Emperor for causing trouble in Heaven. The God of Longevity tells Ma Le, now he has inhaled some celestial spirit, to unite with the God of Wind (Yi Yunhe), God of Rain (Chang Yuan) and Mother of Lightning (Du Juan) – all of whom were banished to Earth at the same time – to thwart the God of Thunder’s evil plans. They kidnap the first two, who have been living on Earth as a street beggar and a bald actor, and then kidnap the Mother of Lightning, whom Ma Le discovers is actually Cai Ming. The three deities grudgingly agree to co-operate and are taken off to be coached by the God of Longevity. In the meantime, Bai Xuejing has been investigating Ma Le. During training, Ma Le falls for Cai Ming but she’s unable to reciprocate his feelings as her whole body is a deadly electrical field that can’t be touched. However, the God of Longevity says the two must fall in love for Ma Le’s newly acquired super-powers to be unlocked.
REVIEW
The clumsily-punned Airpocalypse 天气预爆 is a big step down for Mainland comedian Xiao Yang 肖央 after his first feature as a director, Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon 老男孩 猛龙过江 (2014). A kind of Chinese-style superhero romantic action-comedy fantasy – and if that isn’t enough, with an ecological edge – it has the all the look and feel of a manufactured bigger project for Xiao. Old Boys was a likeable, if disorganised, comedy about two ageing rockers in New York that got by on its lead chemistry between Xiao and his older comic partner Wang Taili 王太利, aka Chopsticks Brothers 筷子兄弟; Airpocalypse, though equally cartoony, doesn’t pivot in such a way on their chemistry and has a thin script covered by lots of VFX. The result has petered out quickly at the box office with a barely respectable RMB123 million, a little over half of Old Boys‘ hawl (RMB209 million).
Not to be confused with editor-turned-director Xiao Yang 肖洋 (The Ark of Mr. Chow 少年班, 2015; Hanson and the Beast 二代妖精之今生有幸, 2017), Hebei-born Xiao, 38, seems here to be stepping outside his comfort zone of verbal and physical comedy into a leading-man status he’s not really equipped for. (In the booming Mainland industry it’s become a common problem, especially among bozo comics – two examples being Xiaoshenyang 小沈阳 and Yue Yunpeng 岳云鹏, both of whom guest here more comfortably in supporting roles, as the falsetto-voiced villain and the hero’s stupid assistant.) The initial idea, of a quack psychologist (Xiao) profiteering from all the depression caused by hazy weather, is more typically his thing, with the film’s funniest joke, involving a chainsaw, right near the start. Thereafter, such anarchic humour lessens as the plot broadens into a tale of good gods battling a bad god to save China’s weather and even planet Earth.
Xiao seems subsumed by the scale of his own production, and a love story that pads out the second half isn’t helped by miscasting ballet dancer-turned-actress Du Juan 杜鹃 as the object of his affections. Beyond her icy looks, Du, 36, has a limited acting range (New York New York 纽约纽约, 2016) and even less aptitude for comedy, subtle or otherwise – here as a goddess of lightning whose whole body is an untouchable electrical field. Xiao’s comic partner Wang, 49, is also stuck in a role, as a fast-talking, rather annoying God of Longevity, that doesn’t provide him with many comic opportunities and is more make-up than character.
The paper-thin script, co-written by Xiao with three new names, basically throws in the towel after an hour or so and hands the film over to the visual effects, which are repetitive and unimaginative. Airpocalypse is lazy film-making, plastered with an equally lazy soundtrack of classical hits and bland pop songs, and shot with no special distinction by the usually highly reliable Cheng Ma Zhiyuan 程马志远.
As well as the English title, the original one is also a pun – in this case on the Chinese for “Weather Forecast” 天气预报, with the final character changed from 报 (“report”) to the homonymous 爆 (“explosion”). So, an English translation could be “Weather Foreblast”.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN), Beijing Excuse Me Pictures (CN), Wanda Media (CN), Horgos Jixiang Films (CN), Erdong Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN).
Script: Xiao Yang, Huang Yuan, Zhang Shaochu, Liu Ben. Photography: Cheng Ma Zhiyuan. Editing: Xu Hongyu [Derek Hui], Zhuo Xiaohua, Liu Lei. Music: Hu Xiao’ou. Art direction: Du Guangyu. Styling: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: Dong Xu, Zhang Jia.
Cast: Xiao Yang (Ma Le), Du Juan (Cai Ming/Mother of Lightning), Wang Xiaoli (God of the South Pole/God of Longevity), Chang Yuan (Chang Xiaoyuan/God of Rain), Yi Yunhe (Huang Zhenren/Huang He/God of Wind), Xiaoshenyang (Bai Xuejing/God of Thunder), Yue Yunpeng (Peter, Ma Le’s assistant), Song Xiaobao, Dai Lele, Zhang Benyu, Yang Yiwei.
Release: China, 21 Dec 2018.