Lovers & Movies

爱我就陪我看电影

China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 86 mins.

Director: Niu Zhaoyang 牛朝阳.

Rating: 4/10.

Fluffy rom-com, with various stories on the theme of going to the cinema together, has no special magic.

STORY

Beijing, the present day. International superstar Lin Jun (Gim Beom) tries to buy a cinema ticket incognito at the Sanlitun Megabox but is recognised by the cashier, fan Jiameng (Gulnazar). Primary school student Ruijin (Zhang Zeyu) tries to interest fellow student Duoduo (Shi Yushi) in going to the cinema with him but all she’s interested in is seeing snow. Teenager Siyu (Zhang Xueying) berates fellow teen Qiu Shui (Wang Zongze) for never wanting to take her to the cinema and storms off when he still refuses. Taxi driver Yao Xingjie (Wu Zhenyu) picks up Ruijin and his mother Ruoyao (Yu Nan) after school; he and Ruoyao knew each other at school, and he learns she’s now divorced from her businessman husband Chai (Zhong Chao). Qiu Shui’s mother, doctor Zhang Wanhua (Hui Yinghong), suggests to her husband, Qiu Jitang (Ren Dahua), that they go to the cinema together, but he says he’s too busy. Her son turns her down as well, so Zhang Wanhua goes with a female friend; in the cinema she sees Qiu Jitang with his mistress, Su Xiaomei (Yao Meiyu), and immediately leaves. Qiu Shui’s gaming pals (Sun Qi, Huang Xingrao) tell Siyu that Qiu Shui has “cinemaphobia”, so she takes him to see a psychologist (Li Kelong), who suggests an expensive course of treatment. When his parents hear about this, Qiu Shui finally caves in and agrees to take Siyu to the cinema – though when the time comes his interest in computer gaming wins out. Meanwhile, Yao Xingjie, advised by fellow taxi driver Liu (Jiang Wu), starts romancing Ruoyao, whom he’d always liked back in school, by attending her ballroom-dancing classes. Jiameng attends a Li Jun fan meeting and wins the prize to have dinner with her idol. After being pacified by her friend, Zhang Wanhua starts trying to win Qiu Jitang back, but he is negative about their marriage being rescued. And after a while, Ruoyao frankly tells Yao Xingjie that they’ll never be a couple as he lacks her natural “elegance” 优雅.

REVIEW

“It’s not important what film you watch, it’s who you see it with,” says the off-screen narrator at the start of Lovers & Movies 爱我就陪我看电影, and the film’s Chinese title pretty much says it all – “If You Love Me, Then Take Me to See a Movie”. Cute idea, stuffed with notable names, is a piece of fluff that cross-cuts between five-or-so stories which cover all age demographics (primary-school pupils, teenagers, young people, married people, even a couple of senior citizens) and mostly turn out to be linked. Made by Shanxi-born songwriter/TV director Niu Zhaoyang 牛朝阳, in the midst of almost 20 horror quickies he produced or directed between 2011 and 2017 (including the Under the Bed 床下有人 and The Haunted Cinema 恐怖电影院 series), it’s unevenly written and depends almost entirely on its line-up of Mainland and Hong Kong names, with no special rom-com magic to the whole thing. Box office was a meh RMB9 million.

With its name cast, the whole production is intended to be several notches above Niu’s budget screamers, but the script (by Niu and five others, including horror-team members Huang Yan 黄炎, Yang Ning 杨宁, Yang Fan 杨帆 and Wang Hailan 王海兰) has a cut-and-paste feeling, with the five or so stories perpetually cross-cutting and little real momentum being built up prior to the expected happy ending(s). In that respect the bumpy ride is not so far removed from that of Niu’s first feature, the Hong Kong-style Super Player 大玩家 (2010), with a Greater China cast brought together in a series of sketches. In place of anyone from Taiwan, Lovers & Movies has young South Korean actor-singer Gim Beom 김범 | 金汎, aka Gim Sang-beom 김상범 | 金尚汎, then 25 and hot from his first Mainland TVD. Two weeks later Gim’s second Mainland film, romantic drama The Beloved 重生爱人 (2015, dir. Cao Dawei 曹大伟), was released, and performed relatively better (RMB20 million).

Given that he’s not required to do much else than stand there and look boyishly handsome, Gim fulfils his contract okay. For the rest, the only real acting comes from Hong Kong’s Wu Zhenyu 吴镇宇 [Francis Ng], as a lovelorn taxi-driver trying to romance his former schoolmate who’s now divorced with a young son. With Mainland actress Yu Nan 余男 rather stiff and over-serious as the single mother, Wu singlehandedly brings a touch of lightness (and even pathos) to the affaire. Others, like Hong Kong’s Ren Dahua 任达华 [Simon Yam] and Hui Yinghong 惠英红 [Kara Hui] as an embittered married couple just clock in and say their lines. Mainland actor Jiang Wu 姜武 pops up in a series of wry cameos as a taxi-driver dispensing wisdom to Wu’s cabbie, and Uyghur actress Gulnazar 古力娜扎, 22, then better known for TV dramas, is attractively awestruck as the superstar’s fan. The younger cast can’t make much of their vacuous dialogue.

Production credits are good without being glossy, with d.p. Guan Minqiang 关民强 showing a natural Beijing. Editing by Liu Zhao 刘钊 (The Haunted Cinema, 2014) is okay, and the romantic music by Shi Yang 史扬 has lots of solo violin. Niu himself cameos as a film director, and the film ends with the cast attending a screening of – you guessed it – Lovers & Movies at Beijing’s Sanlitun Megabox.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanxi Filmoon Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Eastern April Day Film & Culture (CN), Beijing Filmoon Pictures (CN), Beijing Eastern Melody Culture (CN), Beijing Dayue Tiancheng International Culture (CN), Beijing Eastern Longle Film & Culture (CN), Beijing Suiyuan Culture Development (CN), Beijing Daqiao Tangren Film (CN), Nanjing Dieyun Culture (CN), Shanxi Qiusuo Culture (CN), China Movie Channel (CN). Produced by Beijing Filmoon Pictures (CN).

Script: Niu Zhaoyang, Huang Yan, Yang Ning, Zhang Xingjie, Yang Fan, Wang Hailan. Photography: Guan Minqiang. Editing: Liu Zhao. Music: Shi Yang. End-title song: Niu Zhaoyang (music, lyrics). Art direction: Tian Yulong. Styling: Yan Zi. Sound: Qu Peng, Cheng Xiaolong. Visual effects: Gao Liwei, Wang Lilei.

Cast: Wu Zhenyu [Francis Ng] (Yao Xingjie), Yu Nan (Ruoyao), Gim Beom (Lin Jun), Gulnazar (Jiameng), Ren Dahua [Simon Yam] (Qiu Jitang), Hui Yinghong [Kara Hui] (Zhao Wanhua), Zhang Xueying (Siyu), Wang Zongze (Qiu Shui), Jiang Wu (Liu, taxi driver), Niu Ben (grandfather), Lu Yuan (grandmother), Sun Qi (Yang Fan, Qiu Shui’s female gaming friend), Huang Xingrao (Huisheng/Echo, Qiu Shui’s male gaming friend), Yang Ziyi (Zhou Bao’er, Lin Jun’s former girlfriend), Zhong Chao (Chai, Ruoyao’s ex-husband), Zhang Zeyu (Ruijin, Ruoyao’s son), Shi Yushi (Duoduo), Song Siqi (Xiaolong, schoolkid), Wang Hailun (Duoduo’s mother), Niu Zhaoyang (film director), Guan Yu (David), Yao Meiyi (Su Xiaomei, Qiu Jitang’s mistress), Li Kelong (psychologist), Shi Tianshuo (Wu Hang, studio employee).

Release: China, 30 Apr 2015.