Dating Fever

我为相亲狂

China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 106 mins.

Director: Han Jing 韩晶.

Rating: 6/10.

Frothy slice of throwaway rom-com fun sports a lively young cast.

STORY

Shanghai, the present day. Bai Jingjing (Han Xue), 30, is a workaholic creative director at a foreign company whose parents want her to find a man before it’s too late. Tong Jun (Du Haitao), 28, is a geeky hospital worker who’s desperate to get a girlfriend; he meets online writer Mixue (Fan Yilin), 24, on a blind date but his play-acting rich friend, Zhao Shuai (Li Jiahang), 28, spoils the occasion. University student Jiujiu (Xie Yilin), 22, who dreams of becoming a famous actress, is trying to open a drama club at her college. Her uncle (Zhang Guoqing) has just opened a dating agency which is not doing well. However, he does have one client who wants her nerdy son, IT programmer Jiang Xiaoyu (Feng Mingchao), to meet five different types of women, so Jiujiu offers to play all five roles as part of her research into a play she wants to write and direct. Zhao Shuai’s father (Qin Lei), a company chairman, wants his son to settle down and throws a lavish society party to find him a bride. In charge of the entertainment is Jiujiu; and among the guests is Bai Jingjing, for whom Jiujiu once themed a party. Zhao Shuai spots Bai Jingjing and takes a liking to her, though she acts cool when he later tries to court her. Meanwhile, Jiang Xiaoyu and Mixue have formed an online friendship, without realising that their paths cross every day on the same public transport. As part of her research, Jiujiu takes on the challenge of dating Tong Jun, who likes her but is stingy on dates; they end up working together on her play. And at Bai Jingjing’s office, her gay manager Wen (Ji Yibiao), desperate to hook her up with Zhao Shuai, suggests hiring him as her personal assistant.

REVIEW

A group rom-com that’s pretty much what it says on the can, Dating Fever 我为相亲狂 is a frothy slice of throwaway fun based on the apparent contradiction between China’s booming economy, mass of social media and dating agencies, and its growing number of stay-at-home singles 宅男宅女. Very Shanghai in its glossy look, local feel and hyper characters, it’s almost a modern-day, dating take on Shanghai Fever 股疯 (a 1994 cross-border Hong Kong production that satirised the city’s stock-market boom). However, its construction is basically in the same line as earlier, more episodic Mainland rom-coms like Call for Love 爱情呼叫转移 (2007), Fit Lover 爱情呼叫转移II 爱情左右 (2008) and Desires of the Heart 桃花运 (2008) but with a script that cleverly interlinks all the protagonists in one way or another. The final conclusion – that people should return to a slower style of city life, and cherish friendships more – is a token social cherry on a very Shanghai cake.

In her second feature – following the digital romantic drama Beautiful Fable 美丽寓言, shot in 2011 – Shanghai director Han Jing 韩晶, whose background is more in TV documentaries like the five-part Chinese Imperial Examinations 科举 (2013), comes up with a good-looking, slick production, full of TV-style pop-up graphics and an attractive cast. TV actress Han Xue 韩雪 (the martial-arts expert in costume-comedy whodunit Deadly Will 囧探佳人, 2011) adds a touch of cool class as a workaholic executive whose parents are afraid she’ll be left on the shelf, while Taiwan’s style anti-diva Xie Yilin 谢依霖 (aka hold住姐), the tubby member of the quartet in the Tiny Times 小时代 films, dominates the younger cast as a tomboyish drama student. (Her showpiece, playing five different characters on a blind date, is almost worth the price of admission alone.) Xie’s chemistry with Mainland comic/TV presenter Du Haitao 杜海涛, as a geeky hospital worker, is charming, while young TV actors Li Jiahang 李佳航 (as a rich kid) and Feng Mingchao 冯铭潮 (as an IT nerd) make acceptable big-screen debuts. Feng’s lower-key story of an online friendship with a writer (Shanghai stage actress Fan Yilin 范祎琳) is the only one that gets shorter shrift in the busy script by Wang Xu 王旭 and Gu Zhengyi 顾峥艺.

The film’s smart look has a lot to do with the contribution of veteran d.p. Zhang Li 张力 (Red Cliff 赤壁, 2008; The Last Supper 王的盛宴, 2012; and early films for Feng Xiaogang 冯小刚), as well as the artistic supervision of production designer Xiao Xiao 肖霄 who worked with director Han Jing on Chinese Imperial Examinations.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Shiye Film & TV (CN), Jiangsu Sunan Special Equipment Group (CN). Produced by Shanghai Shiye Film & TV (CN).

Script: Wang Xu, Gu Zhengyi. Photography: Zhang Li. Editing: Li Jingliang, Huang Weifeng. Music: Su Junjie. Art direction: Yang Dijun. Styling: Hong Guiyun, Wang Wei, Wang Yixuan, Hu Ye. Sound: Qi Qing, Chen Bin, Liu Yuanyuan, Lv Jiajin. Visual effects:Mao Xiandong, Zhao Zhizhen. Comedy advice: Liang Dingdong.

Cast: Han Xue (Bai Jingjing), Du Haitao (Tong Jun), Xie Yilin (Jiujiu/Chirps), Li Jiahang (Zhao Shuai), Feng Mingchao (Jiang Xiaoyu), Fan Yilin (Mixue), Qin Lei (Zhao Shuai’s father), Zhang Guoqing (Jiujiu’s uncle), Ji Yibiao (Wen, Bai Jingjing’s office manager), Chen Jing (Hao Jian, surgeon), Chen Zhiming (Bai Jingjing’s mother), Liu Changwei (Bai Jingjing’s father), Zhang Li (Daisy, Bai Jingjing’s office staff).

Release: China, 1 Nov 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 31 Jul 2014.)