Good Night Beijing

曾经相爱的我们

China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 94 mins.

Director: Zhang Xiaolei 张小磊 (credited), Fang Zuming 房祖名 [Jaycee Chan] (uncredited).

Late-stage director: Xiahou Yunshan 夏侯云姗.

Rating: 2/10.

A messy script and unlikeable characters sink this mixture of nightlife wannabes and squabbling lovers.

STORY

Beijing, Nov 2018. Ailun (Chen Bolin), a junior manager from Taiwan who works at the Elements disco club, sees off his boss at the airport and is told a new junior manager is flying in at the same time from Taiwan. Realising she is former girlfriend Mengjie (Guo Caijie), Ailun doesn’t go to meet her in the arrivals hall. (The two had acrimoniously broken up when last living together in Beijing.) When they meet at the club, they avoid talking to each other as they go about their jobs. Working at the club as a DJ is Shang Jin (Wei Xun), a wannabe singer who’s come to Beijing with fellow hometowners Leizi (Jiang Chao), who manages him, and drum-player Bozi (Bozi). After Shang Jin is rejected in the qualifying round of a song contest, Leizi does a backdoor deal to get him into the finals, but without telling Shang Jin. Also at the club every night is Xiao’ai (Xiahou Yunshan), who gets helplessly drunk at the bar while waiting for a boyfriend who never arrives. She’s observed by one of the waiters, Zhi (Li Li Zonghan), who tries to talk to her. One evening Ailun “rescues” Mengjie from a rowdy/randy client (Ren Zhengbin) by drinking him under the table. After that, things improve between the two and next morning they go out to breakfast together. At the same time Zhi takes Xiao’ai out to breakfast when she comes round after passing out at the club. Xiao’ai opens up to him about the boyfriend (Gong Yue) who never appears; later she becomes furious when she sees him with another woman. Meanwhile, Ailun has gone very chilly again on Mengjie after seeing messages on her phone from someone calling himself Big Baby who talks about her becoming pregnant.

REVIEW

Massive quantities of alcohol are consumed in Good Night Beijing 曾经相爱的我们 by characters who seem to do little else apart from drink, party and check their mobiles. Shot under the title 北京晚9朝5 (literally, “Beijing 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.”), the film appears to be a portrait of the Chinese capital’s nocturnal denizens via the story of a youngish Taiwan couple who meet cute again after breaking up sometime earlier. But the script is such a total mess, and the characters so self-absorbed and unlikeable, that it’s difficult to understand what the film is exactly about – and, more to the point, how it even came to reach the screen. (See below.) Finally released in Dec 2021, almost four years after shooting wrapped, it managed to scrape a meh RMB36 million, presumably from curio-seekers drawn by the names of the Taiwan leads, Chen Bolin 陈柏霖 and Guo Caijie 郭采洁 [Amber Kuo].

The story behind the making is far more interesting than the finished product. Intended to be the comeback of Fang Zuming 房祖名 [Jaycee Chan], the US-born actor-singer son of Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan] whose career had essentially ended after being arrested in Beijing and jailed on drugs charges in 2014, the film finished shooting in late Jan 2018, with Fang directing and acting, along with Chen, Guo and Hong Kong names like Zeng Zhiwei 曾志伟 [Eric Tsang], Xie Tingfeng 谢霆锋 [Nicholas Tse], and Cheng in a cameo. After a change of Chinese title, and considerable behind-the-scenes work, the film was passed for Mainland exhibition in late 2019 but then again changed its Chinese title before finding screens two years later.

Fang’s name (or face) is nowhere to be seen in the finished film, which (only at the end) credits direction to a certain Zhang Xiaolei 张小磊, reportedly the film’s assistant director. “Late-stage direction” (a euphemism for reshoots) is credited to Hunan-born dancer-turned-actress Xiahou Yunshan 夏侯云姗 (aka Xiahou Qiyu 夏侯琪誉), now 33, who plays a lovelorn drunk in the film, is credited with writing the script, and previously was okay as Cheng’s sidekick in his tired-looking, Australian-set action movie Bleeding Steel 机器之血 (2017). Creative producer on the film is Hebei-born Zhang Lijia 张立嘉, who directed (and, with Xiaohou, co-wrote) Bleeding Steel, as well as the period Shanghai crime movie Chrysanthemum to the Beast 给野兽献花 (2012), a box-office flop with Fang and (in a small role) Xiahou. Prominent among the three editors’ names is that of Hong Kong veteran Lin An’er 林安儿 [Angie Lam], a well-known “fixer” of troubled productions. Cheng’s cameo still survives, Xie is on-screen for a few seconds as a noodle chef, and Zeng is nowhere to be seen at all. Fang himself presumably played either the wannabe singer or (much more likely) the friendly waiter, roles now played (okay) by Mainland singer Wei Xun 魏巡 and young actor Li Li Zonghan 李李宗翰, both de-prettyfied here.

The widescreen camerawork by versatile Polish d.p. Michał Tywoniuk 米好 (The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman 刀见笑, 2010; My Love Sinema 放映爱, 2016; hacker caper Reborn 解码游戏, 2018) suitably shifts along with the various characters and moods, from the strobey, flashy disco club to the wintry Beijing exteriors with their cold light. But it can’t compensate for the bumpy, uninvolving script, which has been shored up by copious cameos of either VIP club clients or showbiz personalities, plus a song every 10 minutes or so on the soundtrack. Chen mumbles as usual, and Guo is squeaky as usual; they both turn on their trademark smiles occasionally and have a kind of chemistry as two Taiwanese amid a mainly Mainland cast, but again it’s not enough. For the record, the film has one of the flashiest and noisiest opening credit sequences in a long time. The Chinese title means “We Who Were Once In Love”.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing TUS Film & TV Media (CN), Shanghai Yuanyi Culture & Art Centre (CN). Produced by Shangjia (Beijing) Picture Film Culture (CN).

Script: Xiahou Yunshan. Script planning: Zhang Yifan. Photography: Michał Tywoniuk. Editing: Lin An’er [Angie Lam], Cui Jian, Dai Bing. Music direction: Luo Jian [Lincoln Lo]. Song direction: Liu Xiaohong. Art direction: Meng Xun, Chen Weiren. Styling: Fu Lei. Sound: Yang Xin.

Cast: Chen Bolin (Ailun/Alan), Guo Caijie [Amber Kuo] (Mengjie), Xiahou Yunshan (Xiao’ai), Wei Xun (Shang Jin), Jiang Chao (Leizi), Ying Da (Liu, club client), Ying Zhuang (coffee-shop owner), Wang Hailin, Zhou Hui (qualifying-round judges), Jin Chi (finals judge), Cheng Long (Uncle Chen, Ailun’s father), Xie Tingfeng [Nicholas Tse] (restaurant cook), Li Li Zonghan (Zhi, waiter), Feng Lei (TB), Liang Danni (Auntie Liang, cleaner), Gong Yue (Xiao’ai’s former boyfriend), Bozi (Bozi/B-Boxer), Ren Zhengbin (Sun, club client), Yuan Man (Zhang, club client), Jiu Wan (Da Bao), Lin Peng (Wang Jinya/Jin, club client), Xu Haipeng (MC), Zhao Hui (programme director), Li Shengli (outside presenter), Wu Qixian [Eric Moo] (finals judge), Fu Lei (himself).

Release: China, 10 Dec 2021.