Hollywood Adventures

横冲直撞好莱坞

US/China/Hong Kong, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 117 mins

Director: Timothy Kendall.

Rating: 7/10.

China Goes Tinseltown in a good-natured, tightly constructed action comedy.

STORY

Beijing, early Feb 2016. Yuppie car salesman and all-round control freak He Yuming (Huang Xiaoming) gets a call from his girlfriend Zhang Yan (Li Yimo) that she’s accepted a job with Hollywood film company Wronald Wright Productions. He Yuming decides to immediately fly to Los Angeles to win her back. It being just before Chinese New Year, the only ticket he can find is with the company Hollywood Adventures Tour. On the plane he meets Fang Dawei (Tong Dawei), a Hollywood film buff who is on the same tour. Meeting them at Los Angeles airport is guide Zhao Weiwei (Zhao Wei), who helps to get He Yuming out of a misunderstanding with Homeland Security and takes the group to a scungy hotel run by South Korean immigrant Bung-ho Lee, aka Manny Love (Gang Seong-ho), head of Hollywood Adventures Tour. Having had his luggage stolen, He Yuming ends up sharing a room and clothes with Fang Dawei. He Yuming repeatedly tries to contact Zhang Yan but she doesn’t return his calls. During a tour of a film museum, a gun battle breaks out when the FBI try to prevent the handover of some merchandise by a couple in the group. He Yuming, Fang Dawei and Zhao Weiwei escape with the bag containing the merchandise, and Zhao Weiwei later explains that Hollywood Adventures Tour is a front for a smuggling operation, in this case powdered rhino horn, an aphrodisiac. The only members of the tour group not in the know were He Yuming and Fang Dawei. He Yuming does a deal with Zhao Weiwei, keeping hold of the bag until she helps him find Zhang Yan. Zhao Weiwei gets them into the offices of Wronald Wright Productions on the Monumental Studios lot and, while she and He Yuming search the offices for Zhang Yan, Fang Dawei gets a job as an extra in the latest film of his idol, Kat Denning (Kat Denning), called Tammy’s Time Trip 3. Unable to locate Zhang Yan, He Yuming and Zhao Weiwei accompany Fang Dawei to the location site, several hours outside Los Angeles. But the van, driven by pothead Dougie (Brian Thomas Smith), breaks down in the middle of the desert.

REVIEW

It had to happen eventually – China Goes Tinseltown – but the results are largely painless and good-natured fun in Hollywood Adventures. Produced and co-written by Taiwan-born, US-raised Lin Yibin 林诣彬 [Justin Lin] (of the Fast & Furious franchise), in his first Chinese-language outing, the film merges Mainland money and star power with Hollywood technicians and locations, all under the slick, good-looking direction of the US’ Timothy Kendall, a commercials and TV director-editor making his feature film debut. Though Lin, 44, takes no co-direction credit, his hand can be felt everywhere – not only in the tautly packaged action sequences, which incorporate plenty of Asian-style humour, but also in the film’s overall treatment of its Chinese leads, which is a long way from Hollywood’s usual exotic condescension. With top-billed actress Zhao Wei 赵薇 also among the producers, the movie is much more than just a cross-cultural co-production in which American values are shown to rule: Hollywood Adventures is primarily for a Mainland audience, and China is clearly the dominant partner when it comes to content.

The film also shows how far the Mainland has come in the past decade or so in its self-esteem and its relationship with the US. Thankfully free of the embarrassing Chinatown/oriental cliches on which Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan] has based a whole career in the West, Adventures feels a world away even from Feng Xiaogang’s 冯小刚 engaging L.A.-set comedy Be There or Be Square 不见不散 (1998), which was a self-confident pathbreaker of its time. Zhao’s character of an English-speaking tour guide based in California doesn’t take the brown stuff from anyone as she gets her two Mainland charges out of one scrape after another; and the threesome, though initially pawns in the seamy side of the Hollywood dream factory, end up with their dignity intact after turning the tables on the locals. It’s to the film’s credit that this is done without any cultural or racial grandstanding, with good humour and mutual repect winning the day.

With an acceptable command of her English dialogue, Zhao leads from the rear most of the time, leaving the showier comedy to male co-stars Huang Xiaoming 黄晓明 and Tong Dawei 佟大为 but managing moments of charm and compassion between the antics. As the yuppie control-freak who’s hopped on a plane from Beijing to win back his girlfriend, Huang doesn’t look entirely at home in the comic sequences but has good enough chemistry with his co-stars – and especially as straight man to Tong, an actor with whom he’s partnered several times (American Dreams in China 中国合伙人, 2013; You Are My Sunshine 何以笙箫默, 2015). As a movie buff who reveals hidden powers in the third act, Tong has a blithe humour that encapsulates the whole film’s flavour and is cleverly underplayed, even when (for no real reason) he’s in drag.

As the errant girlfriend, China-born actress-singer Li Yimo 黎一墨, aka Li Yan 黎妍 (who had a small role in Lin’s Furious 6 [2013] as a Chinese agent), is okay in a more sizeable part here. In a further nod to the Fast & Furious franchise, South Korea-born, US-raised Gang Seong-ho 강성호 | 康成浩 shows up in the much splashier role of an all-American villain with braided hair. Among the western cast, which is speckled with cameos (actor Robert Patrick, former basketball star Rick Fox), Rhys Coiro (Entourage, 2015) makes the biggest impression as a seedy star, handling his pulp dialogue with some aplomb.

The screenplay, credited to five hands including Lin and Korean American playwright Philip W. Chung, moves at a clip and is neatly shaped within its limitations, with a surprising twist near the end. It also contains a surprising amount of naughty jokes, from the double entendres in the names for Gang’s character (purely for western audiences) to an untranslateable pun on “newbie”/牛逼 (purely for Chinese audiences).

The polished technical side is led by the versatile widescreen photography of Sam Chase (indie thrillers Moonlight Sonata, 2009; Run, 2013; Torn, 2013), tightly cut together by Thomas J. Nordberg. The film’s idiomatic Chinese title is somewhat more graphic than the English one, roughly meaning “Barging Around Hollywood Left, Right and Centre”. Setting a record for a production of this size, the end crawl lasts a giant 12 minutes, some 10% of the total running time.

CREDITS

Presented by Bejing Enlight Pictures (CN), Seven Stars Entertainment Hong Kong (HK), Shanghai Movie Star Pictures (CN), Beijing Perfect Storm Film (CN), Pulin Production (CN), Perfect Storm Entertainment (US). Produced by Perfect Storm Entertainment (US).

Script: Brice Beckham, David Fickas, Lin Yibin [Justin Lin], Philip W. Chung, Alfredo Botello. Original story: Brice Beckham, David Fickas, Lin Yibin [Justin Lin]. Photography: Sam Chase. Editing: Thomas J. Nordberg. Music: Nathan Barr. Music supervision: Melany Mitchell. Production design: Jonah Markowitz. Art direction: Denise Hudson (US), Zorana Zen (China). Costume design: Christopher Oroza. Sound: Shawn Holden. Action: Mike Gunther. Special effects: Mike Duenas. Visual effects: Robert Stadd (Psyop). Second unit direction: Mike Gunther. Second unit photography: Pat O’Brien.

Cast: Zhao Wei (Zhao Weiwei/Jodi), Huang Xiaoming (He Yuming/Jim), Tong Dawei (Fang Dawei/Sam), Li Yimo (Zhang Yan), Rhys Coiro (Gary Buesheimer), Stephen Tobolowsky (Wronald Wright), Missi Pyle (casting director), Rick Fox (himself), Robert Patrick (Austin, studio guard), Simon Helberg (Harvey Milsap, Homeland Security interpreter), Gang Seong-ho (Bung-ho Lee, aka Manny Love), Brian Thomas Smith (Dougie), Omar J. Dorsey (Homeland Security agent), James Patrick Stuart (Fox, FBI agent), Roger Fan (Li, Interpol agent), Liu Tong (TV host), Sli Lewis (Brick), Victor Lopez (Theo), Lyndall Grant (Arnold, studio guard), Sara Tomko (receptionist), Parveesh Cheena (casting assistant), Frank Drank (Rudy), Lorin McCraley (Gunther), Jonathan Bray (assistant director), Daved Wilkins (special effects advisor), Rick Chambers (reporter), Abby Walker (Kelly Ashley), Mike Rylander (TV host), Kat Dennings (herself), Tyrene Gibson (himself), Kevin Brennan (bumpkin band singer), Chris Marrs (arresting officer), Zhang Daxing (chauffeur), Chick Bernhardt (Mr. Petrovich), Sandy Gimpel (Mrs. Petrovich), Thomas Dupont (Mr. Covington), Bridgett Riley (Mrs. Covington), Crystal Santos (Monica Garcia), Antony Matos (Parvesh Abdul).

Release: China, 26 Jun 2015; Hong Kong, 27 Aug 2015; US, tba.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 25 Sep 2015.)