My Lucky Star
非常幸运
China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 113 mins.
Director: Dennie Gordon.
Rating: 4/10.
Heavy-handed, painfully unfunny Zhang Ziyi vehicle tries mixing rom-com and spy romp.
STORY
Beijing, the present day, winter. Su Fei (Zhang Ziyi) works by day as a telephone booking clerk at a travel agency but also moonlights as a manga artist, sketching the romantic adventures of herself and a handsome secret agent. Her parents (Ma Weijiang, Wang Ji) are always nagging her to find a husband instead of dreaming of the perfect man; meanwhile, her friends Li Li (Yao Chen), Lu Xiaoxi (Lin Xinru) and super-bitchy Xixi (Cai Shaofen) are more successful in the rich husband-hunting stakes. One day Su Fei wins a five-day trip to Singapore where, on the way to the hotel, she bumps into Chinese American secret agent Yan Dawei (Wang Lihong), posing as David Chen, who, with his sidekick Bao (Zheng Kai), is on the trail of Gao (Gao Jie), a ruthless gangster who is to take custody of a priceless diamond, The Lucky Star, that has been stolen from an exhibition in London and could be used for weapons purposes because of its high-grade industrial qualities. Yan Dawei’s mission is to stop the transaction, retrieve the diamond and find out whom Gao is working for. Su Fei immediately falls for Yan Dawei, who looks exactly like the hero of her comic strips, and at a splashy rooftop party is mistakenly handed the case containing the diamond by its seller, Lu Wan (Rong Xiang). Gao retrieves the case but its electronic lock has been encoded to be opened only by Su Fei. Yan Dawei and Su Fei escape to his safe house in a floating village among Hong Kong’s islands, and Su Fei offers to help him penetrate the nightclub HQ of Gao’s boss, Rebecca, by posing as an exotic dancer. Rebecca turns out to be Charlize Wong (Guan Ying), aka The Black Widow, who intends to sell the diamond in an auction of arms dealers.
REVIEW
In only her second comic role after the rainbow-coloured chickflick Sophie’s Revenge 非常完美 (2009), Zhang Ziyi 章子怡 proves once again she’s not a natural comedienne in the heavy-handed, painfully unfunny My Lucky Star 非常幸运, a kind-of-(but not really)-prequel that takes the earlier film’s kooky, lovelorn manga artist and drops her into a retro-style espionage adventure set in Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. Though many of the producing team (including, most importantly, Zhang), plus several of the techical crew (Cuban American d.p. Armando Salas, Chinese American composer Wang Zongxian 王宗贤 [Nathan Wang], Hong Kong p.d. Chen Siqin 陈思勤 [Second Chan]), have returned, the directorial helm has been handed to the US’ Dennie Gordon (teen comedy What a Girl Wants, 2003, plus much TV) who shows a cool technical professionalism but brings nothing extra to the table to justify her hiring. (The producers couldn’t find anyone in Greater China, when the Mainland is going through a rom-com boom?)
However, it’s the star herself, not Gordon’s functional direction, that is the main problem with the movie. Though often a fine dramatic actress – and the best thing in the recent The Grandmaster 一代宗师 (2013) – her attempts at cute/klutzy seem mechanical and calculated, as if she’s going through the motions learnt from a handbook. Never the warmest of screen presences, and again hampered by trying to play much younger than she actually is (34), Zhang also develops zero chemistry with her pin-uppy Taiwan American co-star Wang Lihong 王力宏, 37, despite some attempts at cheeky double-entendres.
Wang showed some charm in his likeable directing debut Love in Disguise 恋爱通告 (2010) but he hasn’t yet developed the acting smarts for a charismatic, Bond-like role as here. A half-decent script could have helped but, though the zippy main titles promise an I Spy-cum-Charlie’s Angels-like romp, the screenplay, credited to no less than six people (Chinese, Americans and Chinese Americans), fails to be either campy spy fun or involving romantic comedy.
With Wang looking like a rather bemused, handsome bystander, the film devolves into a series of laboured setpieces for the lead actress: Zhang as a girly clothes-horse, Zhang as an exotic dancer in a nurse’s uniform, Zhang as a klutzy heroine in short skirts or action gear, and (in the most squirmingly unfunny scene of all) Zhang as an undercover gondolier in the finale set in The Venetian resort-hotel in Macau. Equally embarrassingly miscast is Taiwan’s Gao Jie 高捷 [Jack Kao] as a half-comic gangster; far better is his compatriot Guan Ying 关颖 [Terri Kwan], as the svelte villainness, and (briefly) Mainland comedienne Yao Chen 姚晨 and Taiwan’s Lin Xinru 林心如 [Ruby Lin], both returning as the heroine’s gossipy pals.
Salas, who also shot Shanghai Calling 纽约客@上海 (2012) and Sailfish 旗鱼 (2007) in China, gives the production a high sheen, as does the production design by Chen (Guns and Roses 黄金大劫案, 2012; Silent Witness 全民目击, 2013) and styling by Tang Yi 唐毅. However, the glossy look – which was part of the whole fabric of Sophie’s Revenge – often overwhelms what would have been better as a tacky romp, given that Star is more of a spy adventure than a real rom-com. The problem of uniting the two genres, and positioning Zhang’s character in both, also dogs the movie throughout, highlighted by the frequent use of manga inserts that here are arch rather than charming.
The Chinese title (literally, “Extremely Lucky”) directly links it to the earlier movie’s, which meant “Extremely Perfect”. The film is dedicated to portly Taiwan comedian Rong Xiang 戎祥, who plays a diamond trafficker and who died on 25 Jan 2013, aged 43. As a footnote, it bears mentioning that the director of Sophie’s Revenge, Jin Yimeng 金依萌 [Eva Jin], and its female co-star, Fan Bingbing 范冰冰, recenty reteamed in One Night Surprise 一夜惊喜(2013), a beautifully tooled, klutzy rom-com that shows what the genre should all be about.
CREDITS
Presented by Bona Film Group (CN), Beijing Cheers! Cultural Investment (CN). Produced by My Lucky Star Productions (CN).
Script: Amy Snow, Meng Yao, Huang Xuhai, Zhou Sun [Chris Chow]. Original story: Gui Youming [Beaver Kwei], Dennie Gordon, Amy Snow. Photography: Armando Salas. Editing: Zack Arnold. Music: Wang Zongxian [Nathan Wong]. Production design: Chen Siqin [Second Chan]. Costume design: Tang Yi. Sound: Huang Zheng. Action: Wu Gang. Visual effects: Cui Weiquan (Crystal CGI).
Cast: Zhang Ziyi (Su Fei/Sophie), Wang Lihong (Yan Dawei/David, aka William), Guan Ying [Terri Kwan] (Charlize Wong, “The Black Widow”, aka Rebecca), Zheng Kai (Bao), Gao Jie [Jack Kao] (Gao), Yao Chen (Li Li/Lily), Lin Xinru [Ruby Lin] (Lu Xiaoxi/Lucy), Cai Shaofen [Ada Choi] (Xixi/Cici), Zhang Jin (Thomas, Xixi’s date), Liu Hua (Su Fei’s travel agency boss), Wang Baoqiang (arms dealer), Wang Ji (Su Fei’s mother), Ma Weijiang (Su Fei’s father), Brian Burrell (Shaw, Yan Dawei’s boss), Rong Xiang (Lu Wan, diamond trafficker).
Release: China, 17 Sep 2013.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 4 Oct 2013.)