Love Will Tear Us Apart

我想和你好好的

China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 96 mins.

Director: Li Weiran 李蔚然.

Rating: 8/10.

Smooth technique and great lead chemistry elevate this sweet-and-sour relationship saga.

STORY

Beijing, 2006. One night, after an argument, a young woman (Ni Ni) climbs out of the car of a rich young guy (Guo Xiaoxiao) and into the car of Jiang Liangliang (Feng Shaofeng), who’s been forced to pull over. She tells him to drive off, and Jiang Liangliang, who likes speed-racing, loses the other guy’s car in the traffic. Afterwards, the young woman disappears in a taxi, though subsequently the rich young guy tracks down Jiang Liangliang and smashes his car in anger. Some time later, Jiang Liangliang, who works as a copywriter at an ad agency, meets the young woman again by chance on a shoot when his colleague, Xiaohei (Niu Baoping), asks him to drive her home. She is Miaomiao, an aspiring actress. They have dinner together and connect. Some time later they move into a flat together, though Miaomiao is put out when Jiang Liangliang’s former girlfriend, musician Meimei (Chang Xiaojing), shows up on the first day to collect some things she left with him. That night Miaomiao intently quizzes Jiang Liangliang on his past girlfriends and then drops the subject. It turns out to be the first episode in a long saga of loving and rowing, with her jealous of his continuing contact with Meimei and spending time with his work colleagues. More and more, Jiang Liangliang feels trapped in the relationship – but it’s one that neither can give up.

REVIEW

There’s nothing especially original about the subject-matter of Love Will Tear Us Apart 我想和你好好的 – a sweet-and-sour relationship saga between a copywriter and an actress – but the combination of terrific lead chemistry, a deftly constructed script full of flavoursome dialogue, and the whole package’s technical smoothness elevates the movie way above the familiarity of the content. An impressive return to features by commercials director Li Weiran 李蔚然, 38, it’s the polar opposite to his debut, get-rich-quick comedy Welcome to Shamatown 决战杀马镇 (2010). Uniting many of the same production team – Zhang Yimou’s 张艺谋 regular d.p. Zhao Xiaoding 赵小丁, composer Dong Dongdong 董冬冬 and editor Guo Boxu 郭博旭 – Love is a character-driven light drama set in wintry Beijing rather than a goofy, plot-driven comedy set in the remote desert.

Much of the film’s success stems from the screenplay by well-known micro-blogger Zuo Yeben 作业本, 30, who also wrote Because of Love the Moon 因情圆缺 (2012), one of several on-line shorts Liu has made in the interim between his features. Inspired, according to Zuo’s own admission, by a woman he first bumped into when he first arrived in Beijing in 2008, Love hitches together an easygoing copywriter at an ad agency with a high-maintenance, aspiring young actress and watches what happens as petty jealousies, career demands and deep-seated differences slowly erode a seemingly ideal relationship. What separates the film from a run-of-the-mill romantic drama is Zuo’s approach, fluidly moving between different moods without getting bogged down in high drama or deep introspection, setting his two main characters in an ensemble of other, likeable characters, and writing dialogue that has an acute, slightly quirky edge without becoming mired in slang. Guo’s silky smooth editing, Dong’s delicate scoring and Zhao’s versatile widescreen photography catching the cold light of Beijing all work effortlessly together.

The biggest suprise, however, is the lead performances – by real-life couple Feng Shaofeng 冯绍峰 and Ni Ni 倪妮. [The two subsequently split up, in 2015.] After making a photogenic debut in The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗 (2011) as the English-speaking courtesan, Nanjing-born Ni eventually followed that with the equally dramatically bumpy psychodrama Redemption 杀戒 (2013), in which she was more convincing playing nice than nasty. Now 25, she’s finally in a less theatrical role suited to her strengths, making her emotionally demanding character sympathetic rather than annoying or manipulative. Feng, 10 years older, is a busy actor who’s generally reliable but has had some difficulty carving a screen persona beyond his good looks (White Vengeance 鸿门宴传奇, 2011; Painted Skin: The Resurrection 画皮II, 2012; Double Xposure 二次曝光, 2012). Here, as the charming but lightweight copywriter who so easily uses his skill with words in human relationships, he shows a natural chemistry with Ni that prevents the movie from becoming just a series of rows, kiss-and-make-ups, and more rows.

Neither actor is pushed by either Zuo’s screenplay or Li’s direction into plumbing any great emotional depths, but the movie doesn’t aspire to be an emotionally wrecking drama of amour fou along the lines of, say, Love and Bruises 花 (2011) by Lou Ye 娄烨. And at just 90-odd minutes, it knows exactly when to quit. Supporting roles are acutely played, from actress-singer Chang Xiaojing 常小婧 as the copywriter’s manipulative ex to Guo Xiaoxiao 郭晓小 as an arrogant, second-generation rich kid who won’t give up on the actress.

The film’s English title is the same as that of the 1999 Hong Kong drama 天上人间 by Yu Liwei 余力为. The Chinese one is more hopeful, roughly meaning “I’d Like Things to Be Fine between Us”.

CREDITS

Presented by Le Vision Pictures (CN).

Script: Zuo Yeben, Li Weiran. Photography: Zhao Xiaoding. Editing: Guo Boxu, Zhang Weili. Music: Dong Dongdong. Art direction: Sun Li. Sound: Wu Jiang, Zhao Ying. Car action: Wang Zhenming. Script advice: Guo Boxu, She Tiejun, Li Anran.

Cast: Feng Shaofeng (Jiang Liangliang), Ni Ni (Miaomiao), Niu Baoping (Xiaohei), Zhou Dehua (Fei Shi/Fat Faeces), Chang Xiaojing (Meimei, Jiang Liangliang’s ex-girlfriend), Ma Sise (Youyou, Jiang Liangliang’s female colleague), Guo Xiaoxiao (rich young guy), Lao Shuang’en (Rick), Lai Zhiyu (commercial director), Li Gang (Feng), Fan Weiyu (client), Wang Zhenming (director), Liu Baolong (taxi driver).

Release: China, 12 Oct 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 21 Dec 2013.)