Super Four
S4侠降魔记
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 96 mins.
Director: Li Kelong 李克龙.
Rating: 6/10.
Family comedy-cum-crime caper is a smooth ride, with a plum role for veteran comic Liu Xiaoguang.
STORY
Zhuhai city, Guangdong province, southern China, the present day. A family of four all work in the Huafa Shopping Mall: father Niu Tiancai (Liu Xiaoguang) and son Niu Xiaoniu (Wen Song) as security guards, and mother Dalan (Wang Yajie) and Niu Xiaolan (Liao Weiwei) as cleaners. Due to their combined ability to catch thieves, they’re nicknamed S4 (Super Four) by mall staff. However, compared with their fellow-villagers who later moved to the city, they are still poor and live together in a single room. Niu Xiaoniu loves flower-seller Fei’er (Tan Shasha) but is outclassed by flashy fellow suitor Jiezi (Li Kelong), while Niu Xiaolan wants to be a singer but can’t afford the fees of an avaricious teacher (Huang Junpeng). A pair of super-thieves (Zhao Yansong, Meng Lu) steal over US$2 million from a gamber’s hotel room but accidentally lose the money when the bag falls on a van and ends up outside the mall, where Niu Tincai finds it next morning. The thieves are actually a US couple (George Christopher Tronsrue, Ina-Alice Kopp) wearing Chinese face-masks. Niu Tiancai wants to hand in the money to the police but is over-ruled by the rest of the family, who go on a massive spending spree and gain face with their fellow-villagers. The now-wealthy Niu Xiaoniu upstages Jiezi for the hand of Fei’er, and Niu Xiaolan can now afford lessons with the singing teacher. But the family is then shopped to the police, led by Gao Wei (Lai Xin), by the jealous Jiezi. And the foreign thieves get on the trail of the money via the van driver (Li Yang) who unwittingly dumped it outside the mall.
REVIEW
A money-money-money family comedy crossed with a crime caper, Super Four S4侠降魔记 is a solid slice of throwaway Mainland entertainment with a very retro Hong Kong flavour. Set and shot in Zhuhai city, just across the water from the former British colony, it’s an above-average production by prolific writer-director-actor Li Kelong 李克龙 that loses a little traction in the final half-hour but is a fine showcase for veteran northern comic Liu Xiaoguang 刘小光, 44, a disciple of Zhao Benshan 赵本山 and best known for the Country Love 乡村爱情 series of TVDs. As a poor but honest shopping-mall security guard who suddenly comes into possession of US$2 million in stolen cash, Liu holds the whole thing together with a performance that’s like an understated version of Hong Kong veteran Zeng Zhiwei 曾志伟 [Eric Tsang].
Without exactly being lavish, the film marks a significant step-up in production values for Li, who’s churned out stuff in almost every genre during the past decade with professional use of modest resources (comedy Lao Wu’s Oscar 老五的奥斯卡, 2009; film-industry satire Pandora’s Sword 潘多拉的宝剑, aka The Sword of Love, 2012; horror Flower’s Curse 花咒, 2014). With good-looking widescreen photography and brief but neat action – both, curiously, uncredited – Super Four balances family and character comedy alongside a crime plot, with everything centred on getting rich (to maintain status) by fair means or foul. It’s the same sort of mixture that Hong Kong churned out so well in the late 20th century.
This time the supporting roles are peopled by Mainland types, with TV actress Wang Yajie 王雅捷 as the money-obsessed onetime village mum, Li’s regular actress Liao Weiwei 廖蔚蔚 as the daughter who wants to be a singing star, and Wen Song 文松 (Screaming Live 尖叫直播, 2018) as the lovelorn son. Ensemble, as in all Li films, is very smooth, and even the two western villains – played by Chicago-born, Beijing-based actor George Christopher Tronsrue and Austrian-born, US-based actress Ina-Alice Kopp, both Mandarin-speakers – are given some personality beyond foreign archetypes. Though the crime plot, which takes up most of the third act, is a bit spun out, the resolution is unexpectedly simple.
The film started shooting in late 2015 and was certified in early 2017 but only released a year later. The Chinese title means “The S4 Knights Vanquish the Devils”. Box office was a tiny RMB3.6 million.
CREDITS
Presented by Suzhou Tai Shidai Cultural Communication (CN), Beijing Dingxin Shixian Cultural Media (CN), Zhonglian Xinying (Beijing) Cultural Media Shareholding (CN), Zhongtian Hongzhan Cultural Media (CN). Produced by Beijing Dingxin Shixian Cultural Media (CN), Da Song Ru Ge Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Suzhou Tai Shidai Cultural Communication (CN).
Script: Li Kelong. Photography: uncredited. Editing: Wei Zhe. Music: Xu Xiao’ou, Zheng Sheng. Art direction: Wang Wenqing. Costumes: Fu Min. Styling: Xiao Hua. Sound: Wu Yingbiao, Wang Tao, Bao Zi. Action: uncredited. Post-production: An Ni. Executive direction: Zhang Jiankang.
Cast: Liu Xiaoguang (Niu Tiancai), Wen Song (Niu Xiaoniu), Huang Junpeng (singing teacher), Wang Yajie (Dalan, Niu Tiancai’s wife), Liao Weiwei (Niu Xiaolan), Lai Xi (Gao Wei, police captain), Shao Feng (Huang Sanjin), Dong Lifan (Zhang, fat cleaner), Song Ning (Huang Sanjin’s wife), Wang Qi (Xiaosun), George Christopher Tronsrue (Da Mo/Big Devil), Ina-Alice Kopp (Mo Nv/Devil Woman), Chen Haowen (Arno), Li Kelong (Jiezi, Fei’er’s suitor), Tan Shasha (Fei’er, flower seller), Zhao Yansong (Chinese Big Devil), Meng Lu (Chinese Devil Woman), Tong Xiaohu, An Yanping, Lv Hanbiao (fellow-villagers), Xu Haipeng, Wu Yunna, Cai Hongbo (fellow-villagers’ wives), Sheldon Wang Zhai, Li Gang (security guards), Liu Ning (Yuan Hua, shopping-mall supervisor), Yu Zhenyu (thief), Huang Gang, Jiang Wei (gamblers), Li Yang (driver), Li Bao (taxi driver), Zheng Xingwei (security guard).
Release: China, 26 Jan 2018.