Your World without Me
你的世界如果没有我
China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 97 mins.
Director: Liu Weiheng 刘伟恒.
Rating: 4/10.
Light, simplistic youth romance depends a lot on the easy chemistry between its two young leads.
STORY
Moxi old town, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, west Sichuan province, southwest China, the present day. Bu (Zhang Youhao) runs a small cafe/bar that doesn’t make any money but he’s unwilling to sell to Hong Xiaobao (Lu Ye), a local wannabe gangleader he’s known since school. Bu’s best friends are Pingzi (Xiang Aoyu) and tomboy Ma Mingzhu (Guan Hong), on whom Pingzi has an unreciprocated crush. On the way to the local Bonfire Festival, Bu gives a ride on his scooter to Luo Yao (Xue Haojing), who’s just arrived as a tourist. The two immediately feel an attraction to each other. Bu later rescues her from the attentions of Hong Xiaobao, and the pair take refuge in his bar. As Bu is also a part-time tour guide, he offers to show Luo Yao around the next day. She keeps avoiding calls from a certain Qiao Zihao (Lian Jie) on her mobile; meanwhile, Bu takes her to a remote old cabin in the hills, where they shelter from the rain. After a couple of days Luo Yao returns to the big city, where she works as a news journalist for the small station RCTV with cameraman Ma Bing (Lv Songxian). She lives with her father (Zhu Yanping), a retired teacher, who would like to see her get together again with Qiao Zihao, one of his former students who’s now a wealthy businessman. Back in Moxi, Bu has had the idea of renovating the cabin to attract Luo Yao back, and gets Pingzi and Ma Mingzhu to help. Luo Yao tells Qiao Zihao she doesn’t want him or his job offers. When she is sacked by RCTV for offending an advertiser, she ends up as a presenter on a shopping channel but still refuses Qiao Zihao’s help. Disappointed Luo Yao still hasn’t come back, Bu sells his bar and goes to the big city, where he gets a job as a food delivery boy. Luo Yao is happy to see him; she then lands a job as the host of a TV chat show, and soon becomes well-known. But gradually Bu feels out of place in the big city and in the way of her career.
REVIEW
A naive, ever-optimistic village boy meets a bruised, more worldly city girl in light youth romance Your World without Me 你的世界如果没有我, the third feature by Hong Kong-born Liu Weiheng 刘伟恒, 43, a TV presenter and jobbing actor (often in the comedies of Peng Haoxiang 彭浩翔 [Pang Ho-cheung]) who started making shorts about a decade or so ago. In the same sunny, slightly dreamy vein as his previous romances Wong Ka Yan 王家欣 (2015) and especially When Sun Meets Moon 某日某月 (2018), this one is a Mainland production, set and shot in west Sichuan province in late 2018. Finally released last December, it took a very mild RMB30 million.
Inspired by the true story of a young man who went to live in the wilds in a log cabin, the film is very dependent on the charm of its young Mainland leads, baby-faced Zhang Youhao 张宥浩 and quietly stylish Xue Haojing 薛昊婧. Sichuan-born Zhang, 23 at the time, and then best known for a supporting role in the virtual-reality action drama Dream Breaker 破梦游戏 (2018), is believable as the ever-smiling, smalltown naïf, while Xue, then 24 and remarkably poised in her first big-screen leading role, has an easy chemistry with him as a more realistic city type who still harbours fairytale dreams. The script by Sun Jinglei 孙晶磊 just about manages to spin their meet-cute romance into feature length, as well incorporate a back-to-nature theme beneath all the wistfulness; but it’s the high production values, especially the clean, good-looking location photography by Zhou Haige 周海舸 and pleasantly catchy score by Peng regulars Huang Ailun 黄艾伦 [Alan Wong] and Weng Weiying 翁玮盈 [Janet Yung], that keep the very simplistic story afloat. Speaking Mandarin, Hong Kong veterans Huang Yifei 黄一飞 and Lv Songxian 吕颂贤 [Jackie Lui] pop up to add flavour, the first as a wannabe gangster’s volcanic father and the second as a likeable cameraman from Taiwan.
CREDITS
Presented by Splendid Sky Productions (CN).
Script: Sun Jinglei. Photography: Zhou Haige. Editing: Su Peiyi. Music: Huang Ailun [Alan Wong], Weng Weiying [Janet Yung]. Music supervision: Huang Ailun [Alan Wong]. Art direction: Peng Weimin. Sound: Li Haijiang, Hao Jianlong. Executive direction: Liang Zheng.
Cast: Zhang Youhao (Bu), Xue Haojing (Luo Yao), Xiang Aoyu (Pingzi), Guan Hong [Chen Guanhong] (Ma Mingzhu), Tobgyal (Bu’s grandfather), Lu Ye (Hong Xiaobao), Huang Yifei (Hong Xiaobao’s father), Lv Songxian [Jackie Lui] (Ma Bing, cameraman), Zhu Yanping (Luo Shiting, Luo Yao’s father), Luo Yuedan (fan of Luo Yao), Lian Jie (Qiao Zihao).
Release: China, 3 Dec 2021.