Women Who Flirt

撒娇女人最好命

Hong Kong/China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 96 mins.

Director: Peng Haoxiang 彭浩翔 [Pang Ho-cheung].

Rating: 6/10.

Loosely written rom-com relies almost entirely on actress Zhou Xun’s screen persona.

STORY

Shanghai, the present day. One day at lunch, Gong Zhiqiang (Huang Xiaoming) tells his best female pal and work colleague Zhang Hui (Zhou Xun) that he has a Taiwan girlfriend, Beibei (Sui Tang), whom he met on the coach to Taibei airport. Zhang Hui is privately crushed, as she has been in love with Gong Zhiqiang since her tomboyish university days but has never declared her feelings; Gong Zhiqiang has always treated her as “one of the boys”. Her friend Ruan Mei (Xie Yilin) is appalled and, to protect the honour of Shanghai women vs. Taiwan “bitches”, gathers a taskforce of her four best pick-up friends – Guagua (Li Fangding), Nana (Yang Kaidi), Jiajia (Choenyi Tsering) and Yaya (Ni Musi) – to coach Zhang Hui on how to win over Gong Zhiqiang by being more feminine. At a dinner with Gong Zhiqiang and Beibei, Zhang Hui turns up, dressed to the nines; but it turns out to be just a snack at a roadside stall, and Beibei throws a tantrum halfway to keep Gong Zhiqiang on side. Next day, a college friend of Gong Zhiqiang (Huang Ming) tells him they all knew at university that Zhang Hui had a thing for him, but Gong Zhiqiang claims “there’s nothing about her that’s feminine”. Ruan Mei and her friends next coach Zhang Hui on how to be coquettish and cute, but with little success. Zhang Hui confesses to Ruan Mei how her dream was to be a sculptor but after university she stayed on in Shanghai to get a job to remain close to Gong Zhiqiang. While Beibei is in Taiwan on a biking holiday with friends, Ruan Mei tell Zhang Hui that she has to make her move – by taking Gong Zhiqiang on a business trip. Zhang Hui, who is Gong Zhiqiang’s team leader at work, calls in a personal IOU from university days and tells him to accompany her to an exhibition in Taibei by well-known sculptor Ju Ming. In Gong Zhiqiang’s room one night, Zhang Hui impulsively kisses Gong Zhiqiang. And then Beibei discovers that both of them are in Taiwan.

REVIEW

Relying almost entirely on the unique screen persona of Mainland actress Zhou Xun 周迅, Women Who Flirt 撒娇女人最好命 is an undemanding rom-com that has the feel of writer-director Peng Haoxiang 彭浩翔 [Pang Ho-cheung] coasting after his much more ambitious, Hong Kong-set comedy-drama Aberdeen 香港仔 (2014). Originally announced in spring 2011, and reportedly going through 20 drafts before finally starting shooting in Nov 2013, Pang’s first 100% China-funded movie is basically an odd-couple comedy-romance between a tomboyish woman who can’t declare her feelings and a man who can’t see her beyond a platonic pal. (“She’s like a guy,” he says. “She even pisses standing up.”) When the man tells her he’s got a girlfriend, the woman is coached by her BFF in the arts of girly seduction, with predictably disastrous results. Though the ending is visible from the opening reel, Flirt is okay as a throwaway star vehicle; but as a satire on female strategy in the battle of the sexes, it hardly gets to first base.

Considering the combined talent in front of and behind the camera – including Mainland star/sex symbol Huang Xiaoming 黄晓明 as the guy in question – Flirt is a let-down on several levels. Inspired by elements in the book Everyone Loves Tender Women 会撒娇的女人最好命 (2005) – a kind of “manual” by pseudonymous Taiwan writer Luo Fuman 罗夫曼 (a homonym for “Lover Man”) – the script ambles along from situation to situation with no real character tension or sense of direction, let alone much structure. Starting in Shanghai and then moving to Taiwan as a pure plot convenience, the movie is more like an idea in search of a plot than a fully-realised rom-com. The work of co-writer Lu Yixin 陆以心 with Peng (Love in a Puff 志明与春娇, 2010; Vulgaria 低俗喜剧, 2012) has always been stronger on situations than structure, but at its best (Love in the Buff 春娇与志明, 2012) has shown a strength for character-based humour. The prime weakness of Flirt on a script level is that the characters have little depth, and the whole movie is built on a simple problem that doesn’t need 90 minutes of screen time to resolve.

Early scenes get some good-natured humour out of the idea, with Zhou good at comic double-takes and bottling up her feelings, and Taiwan anti-diva Xie Yilin 谢依霖, the tubby member of the quartet in the Tiny Times 小时代 series, equally strong as the BFF who coaches her in girly wiles. (A running joke about how to mincingly say to a man the word tăoyàn 讨厌 – roughly, “I hate you” or “You’re too much” – is especially funny.) But the set-up stalls on the unbelievable dimness of the central guy, which reduces Huang virtually to a supporting role through no fault of his own. And with the girlfriend role – played by talented Taiwan actress-model Sui Tang 随堂, the lesbian lover in Make Up 命运化妆师 (2011) – similarly one-dimensional, there’s precious little dramatic conflict between the three leads. Only when Sui’s character fully reveals herself late on, in one of the film’s strongest scenes, does Flirt finally gain a bit of oomph.

The consistent feeling that Peng is just clocking in on the project is a shame, as Zhou gives her best in a role that’s tailor-made for her offbeat, tomboyish persona. Shooting for the first time in Taiwan, and working with the island’s US d.p. Jake Pollock 包轩鸣 instead of his Hong Kong regular Guan Zhiyao 关智耀 [Jason Kwan], Peng draws much more atmosphere out of its locations than he does out of Shanghai, which is portrayed with little local flavour given all the talk of sophisticated Shanghai women taking on slutty Taiwan ones. Other technical credits are as smooth as Pollock’s widescreen images, with Pang’s Hong Kong regulars like editor Li Dongquan 李栋全 [Wenders Li] and composers Huang Ailun 黄艾伦 [Alan Wong] and Weng Weiying 翁玮盈 [Janet Yung] just about managing to get the film across the short finishing line.

Though the film’s English title is a snappy one, and sits neatly alongside Pang’s comedies like Love in the Buff, it’s also misleading. The key word sājiāo 撒娇 in the Chinese title means “coquettish” or “simpering” or “super-cute”, evoking a specific style of flirting/behaviour with men. The whole title roughly translates as “Coquettish Women Are the Luckiest”.

English subtitles are notably below-par, hardly reflecting the tone of the dialogue and sometimes being simply misleading (as in the girlfriend calling the man “hubby”). Spurious English names are also assigned to the main characters.

CREDITS

Presented by Huayi Brothers Media (CN), Huayi Brothers International (HK). Produced by Making Film Productions (HK).

Script: Peng Haoxiang [Pang Ho-cheung], Lu Yixin, Zhang Youyou. First-draft script: Bai Bangni. Story: Peng Haoxiang. Book: Luo Fuman. Photography: Jake Pollock. Editing: Li Dongquan [Wenders Li]. Music: Huang Ailun [Alan Wong], Weng Weiying [Janet Yung]. Art direction: Jiang Hanlin [Jeffrey Kong]. Costume design: Zhong Chuting. Styling: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung]. Sound: Du Duzhi. Visual effects: Wang Yinghao (AMP4). Titles/animation: Wang Yinghao.

Cast: Zhou Xun (Zhang Hui/Angie), Huang Xiaoming (Gong Zhiqiang/Marco), Sui Tang (Beibei/Hailey), Xie Yilin (Ruan Mei/May), Choenyi Tsering (Jiajia/Mimi), Yang Kaidi (Nana/Kiki), Li Fangding (Guagua/Gigi), Ni Musi (Yaya/Lily), Cao Shiping (Qiu, restaurant owner), Fu Chuanjie (Michael, Zhang Hui’s boss), Zhang Zhe (boyfriend A), Zhang Chenwei (Jiajia’s man), Hung Nai-chi (Guagua’s man), Wang Yong (Yaya and Nana’s man), Xie Kezhati (restaurant manager), Long De (Wang, foodstall owner), Huang Ming (Gong Zhiqiang’s friend), Chang Qing (big guy), Mike Sui (Mike, Zhang Hui’s date), Guo Youzhong (neighbour), Xie Mingchun (air hostess), Pi Xiaoyi (boyfriend B), Jarrett Lee Anderson (boyfriend C), Mai Wang, He Zhaoqing (Beibei’s cycling friends), Li Pu’en (woman at bus stop), Yan Yasen (boyfriend D), Chen Yuhan (female hotel guest), Xu Shouqin (Gong Zhiqiang’s father), Liu Dong (sales centre man/Jayden), Hong Hong.

Release: China, 28 Nov 2014; Hong Kong, 1 Jan 2015.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 28 Nov 2014.)