Remember Me

灿烂的她

China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 115 mins.

Director: Xu Wei 徐伟.

Rating: 5/10.

Light drama between a selfless fisherwoman and her grand-daughter who went missing has two strong lead performances but an unbalanced script.

STORY

Zhonghe township, Fujian province, 2010. Five-year-old Xu Jiayi (Qian Jin) is temporarily living with her paternal grandmother Jiang Xiuzhi (Hui Yinghong) in the coastal fishing village of Zhonghe township. Xu Jiayi’s father was a fisherman who died at sea; after his death Xu Jiayi’s mother (Wei Lu) remarried, but to the abusive Li Shengmin (Yu Ailei), who beat her. Jiang Xiuzhi makes a living from selling dried fish; also in Zhonghe are her nephew, Shao Bin (Zhang Zixian) and his wife Yufen (E Jingwen), both of whom also dote on Xu Jiayi. However, one day, while shopping in the market with the kid, Xu Jiayi suddenly disappears and Jiang Xiuzhi is left distraught. Eleven years later, in Feb 2021, Xu Jiayi (Liu Haocun) is living in near-imprisonment in Yongxing city, along with another girl, Lin Jing (Liao Yinyue); both have been blackmailed by two young gangsters, Zhou Ren (Liu Yitie) and Zhu Kui (Hu Baosen), to force them to make make sexy scam videos and engage in other kinds of theft. After searching all round the country, Jiang Xiuzhi, now almost 70, still flyposts pictures of Xu Jiayi as a missing person, though the pictureshardly resemble her. One night Xu Jiayi and Lin Jing escape imprisonment, though Lin Jing is recaptured by the two men after she twists an ankle. Xu Jiayi escapes in a frozen fish lorry, whose driver alerts the police. She’s collected by Jiang Xiuzhi, Shao Bin and Yufen, who take her back to Zhong He township. It turns out that Xu Jiayi was abducted by her mother, who hid her when the police came visiting; when the mother died in Mar 2011 in a car accident, Xu Jiayi was raised by Li Shengmin but eventually ran away. The whole village celebrates her return but Xu Jiayi, already older than her years, feels like a stranger, and Jiang Xiuzhi still treats her like a young child, not a girl of around 17. Jiang Xiuzhi enrols her in the second year of Senior High, in the same class as her cousin Xu Yinuo (Rong Zishan), but Xu Jiayi is a loner and difficult. She tries calling Lin Jing on Xu Yinuo’s phone but there’s no reply; however, her calls are tracked by Zhou Ren, who was injured during Xu Jiayi’s escape and wants payback. At school she shows a natural talent in painting, and despite her stroppiness is encouraged by art teacher Zhuo (Liu Huan). Then one day Zhou Ren calls her on Xu Yinuo’s phone and demands RMB100,000 with threats. Xu Jiayi steals Jiang Xiuzhi’s bank card but at the last moment decides not to steal from her account, telling Zhou Ren to do his worst. So Zhou Ren and Zhu Kui set out for Zhonghe township to destroy Xu Jiayi, starting with her reputation at school.

REVIEW

In Remember Me 灿烂的她, his third outing as director, former Mainland d.p. Xu Wei 徐伟 provides two strong roles for actresses Hui Yinghong 惠英红 [Kara Hui] and Liu Haocun 刘浩存, as a selfless fisherwoman and the young grand-daughter who comes back into her life after 11 years. Adapted (sometimes faithfully, sometimes freely) by newcomer Zhang Li 张莉 from the 2016 South Korean movie Canola 계춘할망 (see poster, left), it dilutes the grandmother role slightly in favour of the grand-daughter. But where the Korean film, directed by Chang 창 | 创 (high-school slasher Death Bell 고死: 피의 중간고사, 2008), was basically an icky showpiece for veteran actress Yun Yeo-jeong 윤여정 | 尹汝贞 in a granny role, Remember Me is both tougher and more realistic, with the weepie elements pared back until the final, revelation-heavy half-hour. Despite the uneven script, and an over-long running time, it’s still watchable thanks to Hui and Liu, the former bringing almost 50 years of acting experience to the granny role and the latter (so good as the ragamuffin in One Second 一秒钟, 2020, and no-nonsense girlfriend in A Little Red Flower 送你一朵小红花, 2020) holding her own as the stroppy teen who proves that blood isn’t necessarily thicker than water.

Shot in early 2022, under the title The Sea 穿越黑暗的我 (literally, “Me, Passing through the Darkness”), the film actually went out a couple of weeks before Xu’s second directorial outing, whodunit The Victims 黄雀在后！, which had lost its original release slot two years earlier due to Covid lockdowns. Each film ended up taking a decent RMB100 million this spring.

Like the Korean original, things start with a prologue showing a young Xu Jiayi temporarily staying with her paternal grandmother, Jiang Xiuzhi (Hui), in a fishing village in Fujian province, east China, due to (vaguely described) family problems at home. Jiang Xiuzhi, who sells dried fish and has her own house, dotes over the cute kid; so when she suddenly disappears one day when they’re shopping in a market, she’s devastated. After this nine-minute intro, the film flashes forward 11 years to 2021: Xu Jiayi (Liu) is now a pretty teen of around 17, but is being blackmailed, along with another girl, into working scams for two young sleazebags who virtually hold them prisoner in the nearest city. Xu Jiayi manages to escape, and the rest of the film is her trying to re-adjust to village life (and the discipline of a high school in which Jiang Xiuzhi enrols her) as well as escaping the two sleazebags who are on her tail.

Most of all, Remember Me is about an elderly woman and her grand-daughter trying to find common ground again after the latter has suddenly grown up and experienced more for her age than the average teen. The new Xu Jiayi is hardly a sympathetic figure, especially in the way she treats an old woman who’s devoted a big chunk of her life to finding her; but after making its point, the film doesn’t overplay Xu Jiayi’s sulky teen side, finding instead a way (art class) to channel her inner darkness. What unbalances the whole film, however, is the mass of plot revelations that start appearing half-an-hour before the end, and the one-dimensional weepie the film then becomes. With the movie essentially over by the 85-minute mark, the rest is simply padding, including a coda that takes the two women’s story to its conclusion.

The gradual transition of Hui, now 64, from a Shaw Brothers action heroine during the 1970s to oldie roles nowadays has been remarkable. The Hong Kong-born star hasn’t always avoided ickiness in the latter (e.g. the blinky, naggy mother in Sunshine of My Life 一路瞳行, 2022) and there are times in Remember Me when she comes close; but generally it’s the script that’s at fault rather than her steely performance as the selfless granny (“almost 70”) who likes a glass or three of baijiu on the side. (One scene, of her drinking the two sleazebags under the table, is a mini-classic.) Supporting roles help the spread the load, including Liu Huan 刘欢 as a tough but well-meaning art teacher and Zhang Zixian 张子贤 as a supportive family relation. Perennial villain Yu Ailei 余皑磊 shows up in the latter stages as a family scumbag.

Xu has had different DPs on all three of his features so far, and here Liu Fan 刘帆 (Lost and Found 以年为单位的恋爱, 2021; Yesterday Once More 倒数说爱你, 2023) does a good-looking job, both day and night, without getting in the way of the actors. Music by An Wei 安巍 is pleasant, if rather obvious. The film’s Chinese title roughly means “The Brilliant Lady”.

CREDITS

Presented by QC Media (Wuxi) (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN). Produced by QC Media (Wuxi) (CN).

Script: Zhang Li. Photography: Liu Fan. Editing: Zhou Yun. Music: An Wei. Art direction: Shan Yishou. Costumes: Wang Yugui. Styling: Jin Zhu. Sound: Wang Chong. Action: Li Zhenfei. Visual effects: Yuan Huatang, Wu Zhen (Beijing Source VFX). Executive direction: Ku’er Banjiang.

Cast: Hui Yinghong [Kara Hui] (Jiang Xiuzhi), Liu Haocun (Xu Jiayi/Li Siran), Zhang Zixian (Shao Bin), Liu Huan (Zhuo, art teacher), Wei Qing (Liu), Liu Yitie (Zhou Ren), Hu Baosen (Zhu Kui), Liao Yinyue (Lin Jing), Ge Si (Yao Jincai), E Jingwen (Yufen, Shao Bin’s wife), Rong Zishan (Xu Yinuo), Yu Ailei (Li Shengmin), Qian Jin (young Xu Jiayi), Li Zhimo (young Li Siran), Lin Yuan (Zheng Lin), Wei Lu (Liu Yaxin, Xu Jiayi’s mother), Sun Zhongqiu (Song, art teacher in Fuzhou).

Release: China, 15 Mar 2024.