Lost in Russia
囧妈
China/Hong Kong, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 125 mins.
Director: Xu Zheng 徐峥.
Rating: 7/10.
The third of Xu Zheng’s odd-couple road comedies is always an easy ride but loses traction off the train.
STORY
Beijing, the present day, winter. One morning successful businessman Xu Yiwan (Xu Zheng), inventor of the eco-friendly Warm Lord 暖霸 system, is visited at his luxurious flat by his soon-to-be ex-wife, businesswoman Zheng Lu (Yuan Quan), who drops off her cat for a few days. She’s flying to New York to bid for an eco-project and says that, if successful, she’ll leave the China market to him. Xu Yiwan has still to sign their divorce agreement as she is demanding the patent to Warm Lord, which she co-developed. Their meeting ends badly but soon afterwards Xu Yiwan rushes to the airport with his assistant Guo Zijian (Guo Jingfei) to get on the same flight. Realising he’s left his passport with his mother, Lu Xiaohua (Huang Meiying) – whom he’d agreed to accompany to Moscow on a short trip – Xu Yiwan sends Guo Zijian on ahead. He then discovers his mother has decided to take a train instead of a plane, and has already left as it’s a six-day journey. Xu Yiwan reaches the train just before it leaves but then finds himself trapped on it with her, as she still has his passport in her bag. The conductor (Jia Bing) says the next stop is in six hours’ time, at Jining. Xu Yiwan and his mother immediately start arguing, as usual; but at Jining he feels guilty about not accompanying her on the trip, which is important to her – an invitation for a Chinese women’s choir to celebrate 70 years of Chinese-Russian friendship. (Lu Xiaohua worked as a nurse in Moscow in her youth.) He decides to stay on the train and communicate with Guo Zijian by phone over how to disrupt Zhang Lu’s bid in New York. His plan is temporarily thwarted, however, by his mother dropping his phone in some liquid and needing half a day to dry it out in her rice cooker. At Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Guo Zijian reaches him on a public phone and Xu Yiwan instructs him to secretly find out how much Zhang Lu is offering so he can outbid her. However, Guo Zijian is arrested and Zhang Lu, furious, calls Xu Yiwan to tell him so. Meanwhile, Lu Xiaohua, who doesn’t know about her son’s divorce, becomes suspicious of a beautiful young Chinese-speaking Russian, Natasha (Olga Magnytskao), who has joined the train and has a seat in the same compartment. Natasha is sad over being dumped by her boyfriend, and she and Xu Yiwan end up getting royally drunk together in the restaurant car that night. Natasha eventually leaves the train and Xu Yiwan and his mother carry on to Moscow. But then at Vladimir, 200 kilometres east of their destination, Lu Xiaohua suddenly leaves the train and Xu Yiwan runs through the snow with her luggage, trying to find her.
REVIEW
Joined at the hip on a six-day train ride from Beijing to Moscow, a grumpy mum and her self-centred son traverse the whole range of emotions and back again in Lost in Russia 囧妈, the latest odd-couple road comedy by popular actor-director Xu Zheng 徐峥, 47. For sheer entertainment this third entry in Xu’s Lost franchise falls somewhere between the other two – the hyper but well-crafted Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧 (2012) and the pleasant but tame Lost in Hong Kong 港囧 (2015), themselves unofficially spun off Lost on Journey 人在囧途 (2010), a surprise summer hit starring Wang Baoqiang 王宝强 and Xu, and directed by Hong Kong’s Ye Weimin 叶伟民 [Raymond Yip], that was independently made. Never less than a pleasant watch, with slick production values and plenty of pointed humour, the episodic Russia is still over-long at two hours (the longest so far) and loses impetus in its final, more serious 50 minutes. It again shows the perpetual tug in Xu’s comedies between good old-fashioned belly laughs and his brand of nostalgic romanticism, often at the cost of things like structure and a consistent tone.
After the hefty box office of Thailand (RMB1.3 billion) and Hong Kong (RMB1.6 billion), expectations were in the RMB2 billion-plus range for this third entry, especially given the time gap since Hong Kong and the film getting a CNY release date. Given its maternal theme, it would have sat better as a Mother’s Day release, but in the event we’ll never know how it would have fared as a theatrical release (see poster, left). In a revolutionary decision – spurred by the Wuhan coronavirus scare and government appeals for the public to remain home where possible – Xu has released the film for free online, as a kind of New Year gift to the Chinese people, after striking a RMB600 million-plus deal with local tech giant ByteDance, owner of popular video-sharing platform TikTok.
From its opening visuals, roaming round the luxurious flat of the main character, Xu Yiwan (Xu), Russia has a cooler, slicker look than its predecessors that’s very typical of high-end Mainland productions nowadays. The tone is followed through by the first scene, between Xu Yiwan and his bitter ex-wife (actress Yuan Quan 袁泉, off-puttingly icy throughout the whole film), which is low on laughs and played absolutely straight by Yuan. The comedy then ramps up as Xu Yiwan speeds after her to the airport, finds his assistant (Guo Jingfei 郭京飞, entertainingly cringey) hasn’t got his passport, and ends up on a six-day journey by train to Moscow with his naggy mother (who has it in her bag). The 25-minute set-up, which includes a sizeable row over said passport, could have been condensed as, once trapped together on the train, son and mum spend most of their time doing the same thing – spatting and making up, interspersed by various character episodes and occasional stops en route.
The former include a funny cameo by popular actor-comedian Shen Teng 沈腾 (Goodbye Mr. Loser 夏洛特烦恼, 2015; Hello Mr. Billionaire 西虹市首富, 2018), almost unrecognisable beneath wig and glasses when Xu Yiwan tries to get a better compartment, and a romantic interlude between Xu Yiwan and a lovelorn Russian beauty (Shanghai-based Ukrainian model-presenter Olga Magnytskao, speaking fluent Chinese). But it’s the recurring character of the train conductor, played by theatre actor/TV presenter Jia Bing 贾冰, 39, that holds together the whole railway section – a drily observed portrait of officialdom, composed of revolutionary phrases and bureaucratic speak, that’s second only to Xu’s performance in likeable idiocy.
In her first film role for a decade, Shanghai actress Huang Meiying 黄梅莹, 69, makes a nice change from Xu’s more manic co-stars like Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo 黄渤 (Thailand) or the low-wattage Bao Bei’er 包贝尔 (Hong Kong). Utterly in control, and entirely believable as a domineering but loving mother – awww! – the veteran August First Film Studio actress (Devoted Love 一往情深, 1984), latterly memorable as the mother in Peacock 孔雀 (2005), is a match for Xu’s physical antics as well as blooming in the latter, more serious half when the story leaves the train.
Despite Huang’s performance, however, there’s a definite dip in the film’s momentum once the story leaves the train, partly because of the general change in tone as the mother-son story becomes more serious and partly because the parallel story of the ex-wife in New York becomes increasingly clumsy and distracting. Only after some desperate attempts to keep the goofiness going (homicidal CG Russian bears, a wild party on a boat, an encounter with a wacky balloonist) does the film recover at the very end, adjusting to its change of tone in a surprisingly moving sequence of mum and her co-choristers performing in a Moscow theatre.
The movie’s technical slickness is led by the crisp, wintry visuals of d.p. Liu Yizeng 刘懿增 (mystery-thriller A or B 幕后玩家, 2018, starring Xu) and some stunning aerial photography along the train’s journey through Russia, sometimes helped by the always excellent VFX. Editing by series regular Tu Yiran 屠亦然 is always smooth, while the big, entertaining score by Peng Fei 彭飞 (Hong Kong) is suitably littered with lusty Russian songs and classical tidbits (the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth for the glowering mother, Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto for the arrival in Moscow).
For the record, the film features the final appearance by Gao Yixiang 高以翔, in a tiny role as the ex-wife’s boyfriend; the 35-year-old Taiwan Canadian actor-model (Love Is a Broadway Hit 情遇曼哈顿, 2017; Shanghai Fortress 上海堡垒, 2019) died of a sudden heart attack on 27 Nov 2019 in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, while shooting a reality TV series. Underscoring the movie’s mother-love theme, the end credits include pictures of the cast and crew as children and adults with their mums. Presumably to halt the audience’s exit, an intertitle advises that two extra scenes are included after the end titles, the second of which features Huang Bo, a frequent colleague of Xu since Crazy Stone 疯狂的石头 (2006) and co-star of Lost in Thailand. The film’s untranslatable Chinese title again uses the ancient character jiŏng 囧 (popularly used as an emoticon for helplessness, sadness or annoyance) but this time pairs it with that for “mother” 妈 instead of a country’s name.
CREDITS
Presented by Huanxi Media Group (Shanghai) (CN), Beijing Joy Leader Culture Communication (CN), Joy Leader (Shanghai) Film (CN), Huanxi Media Group (Beijing) (CN), Mokexing Film Beijing (CN), Huanxi Media Group (HK), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Huanxi Media Group (Tianjin) (CN), Guangdong Sublime Media (CN). Produced by Beijing Joy Leader Culture Communication (CN).
Script: He Keke, Bululufu, He Yihe, Xu Zheng. Photography: Liu Yizeng. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Peng Fei. Art direction: Gao Ang. Costumes: Gao Ang. Styling: Lei Shuyu. Sound: Yang Jiang, Zhao Nan. Action: Liu Mingzhe. Visual effects: John Dietz, Xiang Fei.
Cast: Xu Zheng (Xu Yiwan/Ivan), Huang Meiying (Lu Xiaohua), Yuan Quan (Zhang Lu), Jia Bing (Jia Jianguo, train conductor), Guo Jingfei (Guo Zijian/Guo Tie), Huang Bo (billionaire on train), Shen Teng (filial son on train), Song Xiaobao (balloonist), Huang Jingyu (Da Long, Xu Yiwan’s driver), Gao Yixiang (Michael, Zhang Lu’s boyfriend), Olga Magnytskao (Natasha), Chen Qi (filial son’s grandmother), Wu Yunfang (filial son’s mother), Han Haolin (boy in compartment), Zhang Jianya (Ma Xiaobing), Tang Qun, Zhang Zhihua, Wu Jing, Xu Xing, Xu Yulan, Lu Yanfang (choir members), Naomen E’erdeni (Mongolian husband), Zhu Li’na (Mongolian wife).
Release: China, 25 Jan 2020 (online); Hong Kong, 25 Jan 2020 (online).