Tiny Times III

小时代  刺金时代

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 128 mins.

Director: Guo Jingming 郭敬明.

Rating: 6/10.

More of the same fashionista, BFF nonsense, slickly shot but slower to ignite.

STORY

Shanghai, the present day, late autumn. Friends since high-school days, Lin Xiao (Yang Mi), Gu Li (Guo Caijie), Nan Xiang (Guo Biting) and Tang Wanru (Xie Yilin) are now all reunited under the same roof thanks to Lin Xiao heading off Nan Xiang at the train station and Gu Li, who works as chief financial officer at style bible ME Magazine, paying for a splashy apartment in Sinan Mansions. Joining them at their housewarming is Gu Li’s boyfriend Gu Yuan (Ke Zhendong), Lin Xiao’s boyfriend Zhou Chongguang (Chen Xuedong) and Nan Xiang’s ex-boyfriend Wei Hai (Du Tianhao), whom the tubby joker of the pack, Tang Wanru, dotes over. ME editor-in-chief Gong Ming (Jin Rong) is to attend a fashion show in Rome and tells Lin Xiao, who is his assistant, to bring along Nan Xiang and Tang Wanru as well, so all four friends go together. When Gong Ming’s briefcase is almost stolen in Rome, Gu Li sees a document inside that assigns legal representation of ME to Zhou Chongguang, Gong Ming’s younger step-brother who is a columnist on the magazine. At the fashion show Gu Li is surprised to see her troublesome Chinese-American cousin Neil (Yi Hyeon-jae), whom she grew up with, as one of the models; he’s meant to be studying law in New York but has taken a year off. Afterwards, Gong Ming suddenly flies off alone to the US, and subsequently Lin Xiao learns that Zhou Chongguang has died there from cancer. She’s devastated, and takes almost a year to recover. Meanwhile, Nan Xiang learns her mother has accrued more gambling debts and has a month to pay back the money; her first love, Xi Cheng (Jiang Chao), offers to help but she turns him down. Gu Yuan has decided to propose to Gu Li, and Lin Xiao suggests doing it the following month, which will not only be Gu Li’s birthday but will also see a big party for the eighth anniversary of ME. Out of the blue, Gu Li’s younger brother Gu Zhun (Ren Yankai) turns up; he tells her it was he who inherited the missing 20% of their late father’s company, Shenggu, and that ME is ripe for a takeover. At work, Lin Xiao overhears Gu Yuan’s mother, Ye Chuanping (Wang Lin), who is now head of Shenggu, telling Gong Ming to sack Gu Li (whom she’s never liked) and replace her with Gong Yuan. Lin Xiao is further troubled by seeing in Gong Ming’s office a new blond-haired, blue-eyed male model, Chinese-American Shaun, aka Lu Shao (Chen Xuedong), who reminds her of the late Zhou Chongguang. To find the true state of ME‘s finances, Gu Li gets her three friends to help her break into Gong Ming’s study during the anniversary party at his home so she can photograph some documents. But then Gong Ming is tipped off about her plan.

REVIEW

The latest instalment – and the longest so far – in Guo Jingming’s own versions of his best-selling novels, Tiny Times III is pretty much more of the same: more girly hugging and spatting by the four BFFs, more fashionista extravagance, more identikit metrosexual boyfriends, and more fabulously splashy visuals by returning Taiwan Canadian d.p. Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che] (Sweet Alibis 甜蜜杀机, 2013) and Taiwan production designer Huang Wei 黄薇 [Rosalie Huang]. Though it’s still New China – or rather, New Shanghai – to its fingertips, the film again draws on a wide range of talent behind the camera from Greater China, plus this time South Korea on the art direction and set design sides. In front of the camera, the new faces are mainly quarter-American Korean boybander-model Yi Hyeon-jae 이현재 | 李铉在 (known as 李贤宰 in China) who brings some playful goofiness and scratchy Mandarin to his role of a gay cousin, and Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised, half-Chinese Singaporean actor-model Jin Rong 锦荣 [Vivian Dawson] (Sorry I Love You 对不起我爱你, 2013), who takes over the role of half-Welsh Taiwan actor Feng Xiaoyue 凤小岳 [Rhydian Vaughan] as the emotionless, control-freak editor of style bible ME Magazine. If for nothing else, Guo’s films can’t be faulted for their international flavour.

What’s even more clear from this instalment – which adapts the first half of his 2011 novel Tiny Times 3.0 (小时代3.0  刺金时代) – is that Guo’s films are stylistically part of his adopted city’s film heritage. Purists and film scholars may throw up their hands in shock, but his make-believe Shanghai – where it snows every year, the women are all fashion-plates, the men are all blandly epicene, and the architecture of choice is colonial – is hardly different from that of commercial Shanghai movies of the 1930s and late 1940s, especially by style maestros like Cai Chusheng 蔡楚生. Guo’s teenybopper target audience may be younger and more self-obsessed than Cai’s ever was; but his vision of the city is as equally fairytale, even though he omits to show its less affluent side.

Though the films come virtually pre-sold to their target demographic, Guo still faces the challenge of keeping the paper-thin concept fresh and pulling a few new rabbits out of the hat each time. In TTIII he follows the current Mainland trend of a foreign location: here, an extended pre-title sequence set in Rome, where les girls just wanna have fun between bits of plot. Though it’s flashily put together, with split-screen, several montage sequences and enough costume changes to fill several wardrobes, it has a forced feel, as if the cast are still getting used to each other after 10 months apart. (The Rome scenes were shot first.) In fact, the movie doesn’t properly find its feet until an hour in, during a larky setpiece of the foursome on a Mission: Impossible-like operation that recaptures the first film’s light, ensemble chemistry. Once that’s over, and several cats are let out of the bag to precipitate a major falling out, the final half-hour is largely devoted to les girls clearing up various misunderstandings and becoming BFFs again.

Even more than in the previous films, the guys are pretty accessories who spend time eyeing each other rather than being believable boyfriends, despite all the talk of love and romance. For teenie audiences that’s fine, as is all the sisterly friendship that underlines the central theme of best friends forever (时代姐妹花永远不分手). Taiwan actress Guo Caijie 郭采洁 [Amber Kuo] still dominates the quartet, but the action is more equally spread between them than in TT2, which rather sidelined quarter-American actress Guo Biting 郭碧婷 [Bea Hayden] and Taiwan goofball Xie Yilin 谢依霖 (Dating Fever 我为相亲狂, 2013). Top-billed hottie Yang Mi 杨幂 takes longer to register this time, and has more than her full share of crying scenes, but looks more relaxed in the central section after a stiff start.

Technical credits, especally Che’s photography and some clever visual effects, are all sharp, with tight cutting by new editor Qiao Aiyu 乔爱宇 (Love Retake 爱情不NG, 2013). Like TT1 and TT2, the film was shot back to back (from Dec 2013 to Mar 2014) with the fourth and final instalment, to be released in Chinese New Year 2015 [actually delayed until Jul 2015]. A music video trailing part four is tagged on to the end, as are specially shot scenes in which the cast send themselves up.

CREDITS

Presented by Zhejiang Huace Film & TV (CN), He Li Chen Guang Media (Beijing) (CN), Le Vision Pictures (Tianjin) (CN), EE-Media (CN), Shanghai Entertainment Team Media Group (CN), Comic Ritz Film & TV Culture (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Vision Power (CN), Ruyi Media (CN), Garbo Culture (CN), Shanghai ZUI Culture Development (CN), Beijing Maxtimes Cultural Development (CN), Mission Media Investment (Shanghai) (CN), Zhejian Taobao Network (CN). Produced by Mission Media Investment (Shanghai) (CN).

Script: Guo Jingming. Novel: Guo Jingming. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Qiao Aiyu. Music: Huang Ailun [Alan Wong], Weng Weiying [Janet Yung]. Production design: Huang Wei [Rosalie Huang]. Art direction: Jeon Su-a, Im Chun-ok. Sound: Wang Yanwei. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Visual effects: VHQ. Executive director: Chen Weiqiang.

Cast: Yang Mi (Lin Xiao), Ke Zhendong (Gu Yuan, Gu Li’s boyfriend), Guo Caijie [Amber Kuo] (Gu Li/Lily), Chen Xuedong (Zhou Chongguang, Gong Ming’s younger step-brother; Lu Shao/Shaun), Guo Biting [Bea Hayden] (Nan Xiang), Xie Yilin (Tang Wanru/Ruby), Yi Hyeon-jae (Neil), Jin Rong [Vivian Dawson] (Gong Ming), Ren Yankai (Gu Zhun), Wang Lin (Ye Chuanping, Gu Yuan’s mother), Jiang Chao (Xi Cheng, Nan Xiang’s first love), Shang Kan (Kitty, Gong Ming’s executive assistant), Du Tianhao (Wei Hai, Tang Wanru’s dream lover).

Release: China, 17 Jul 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 1 Aug 2014.)