Over Again
回到过去拥抱你
China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 89 mins.
Director: Hua Ming 花明.
Rating: 4/10.
Confused cross between a high-school pals’ story and time-travel hijinks doesn’t generate any charm.
STORY
Xinhai city, 2017. A young man, Zhang Ziyang (Peng Yuchang) runs to a public phone booth, inserts a special silver coin, and says to Time (Ma Ke), the celestial being who answers, that he wants to travel to the year 3017. In 2028 young writer Gao Silin (Hou Minghao), while plugging his new book on a chat show, says it was inspired by his two best friends, Zhang Ziyang and Guo Sijia (Gai Yuexi). They first met in 2010 and ended up attending the same high school. Geeky, cowardly Zhang Ziyang, who held a torch for Guo Sijia, was afraid of his domineering father (Wang Chao); Guo Sijia was known as the school’s tough beauty and appeared to like Gao Silin a lot. In an argument between the two boys over which of the two she loved, Gao Silin was accidentally injured and later developed a reading disorder. He eventually dropped out of school and worked in a coffee shop. Meanwhile, Guo Sijia concentrated on going to university in Beijing to study fashion design, while Zhang Ziyang, in a total character reversal, ignored his studies and developed into the rebellious leader of a punk rock group, with an apparent girlfriend, fellow student Mo Shihan (Ming Ziyu). After not talking to Guo Sijia for a long time, he finally declared his feelings for her; she was shocked, seeing him only as a friend, albeit one who’d dramatically changed. Zhang Ziyang was then in open conflict with his father, who only wanted to see his son qualify for university. On 26 May 2017, his 18th birthday, Zhang Ziyang held a concert with his rock group; it was broken up by his father and the police, and Zhang Ziyang jumped off a bridge and drowned. Gao Silin and Guo Sijia discovered he was doing research into time travel, and Gao Silin later stumbled on the method of transport (a public phone box, plus special silver coins). On 17 Jun 2017 he asked Time to transport him back to 26 May in order to save Zhang Ziyang. When he did save him, Zhang Ziyang was angry, saying he still felt guilty for causing Gao Silin’s dyslexia. However, when Gao Silin woke up back on 17 Jun he found he hadn’t been able to change the past. Determined to do so, he again travelled back to 26 May, and this time took Guo Sijia with him, hoping to fix the two up as a couple.
REVIEW
A time-travelling youth fantasy aimed at teenage girls – or at least, fans of Mainland actor-singers Hou Minghao 侯明昊, 22, and Peng Yuchang 彭昱畅, 24 – Over Again 回到过去拥抱你 starts like a typical high-school movie focused on a trio of best friends but, after the main set-up, starts to run round in circles as the plot zips back and forth in time and also gets progressively thinner. In her second feature after the charming rom-com Fall in Love 爱神 (2013), Henan-born writer-director Hua Ming 花明 aims for equally clever plotting but fails to engage the viewer in the same way, partly because of the casting but also because she doesn’t develop her material in such an organic way and seems much more interested in the bromance between the two male leads than any romantic vibes with their female pal. Box office was almost double that for Fall in Love but still reached only a meh RMB20 million.
After a brief reference to John Williams’ Harry Potter theme, and a character travelling into the future via a public telephone box, the film gets off to a confident start, and for the first half hour proceeds as a solid, if generic, high-school movie set in the present. The fantasy element only re-appears when one of the boys drowns and his two surviving friends find he’s been secretly researching time travel. Really. They decide to crack his method and use it to voyage backwards and re-write history.
Apart from its random plotting, the film’s one big problem is the leads who carry the whole thing. Hou, who had a small flashback role in The Devotion of Suspect X 嫌疑人X的献身 (2017), isn’t given much to do except stand there and look pretty. As the nerd-turned-rocker, Peng, who’s done both geeky (Our Shining Days 闪光少女, 2017) and lively (Go Brother 快把我哥带走, 2018) before, is much more versatile but is stuck by the script in his own vacuum. Worse, as a writer Hua can’t decide whether she’s interested in the bromance between the boys or any romance with the girl. As the latter, a lanky tomboy who’s always berating her two pals, 26-year-old actress-model Gai Yuexi 盖玥希 (so good as the pulpy bounty huntress in virtual-reality romp Dream Breaker 破梦游戏, 2018) isn’t given much of a personality beyond being big-eyed and shouty. Basically, one couldn’t care less about these self-obsessed kids, and other roles (grumpy parents etc.) are just decoration.
The film might have generated more emotional involvement if it had had a real sense of fun, but the few moments of humour are forced and, unlike Fall in Love, there’s no bounce or charm to the movie. The plot runs out at the 75-minute mark and the rest of the running-time is padded with songs and exhortations about love. One futuristic visual gag – a poster for a fake franchise called Womenger 8 妇仇者联盟8 (a female riff on the US Avenger series) – is thrown away near the end.
Technical credits, including the limited visual effects, are solid without being special in any way. The film is set in the fictional city of Xinhai, which looks remarkably like Shanghai (where it was shot in autumn 2017, under the Chinese title 完美鬼咒, literally “The Perfect Ghost Curse”). The final Chinese title means “Back to the Past to Hug You”. As on Fall in Love, creative producer 监制 was Hong Kong journeyman director Qian Yongqiang 钱永强 [Andy Chin] (Painted Skin 画皮, 2008), and the key crew includes several from Taiwan (d.p. Chen Huisheng 陈惠生, Formula 17 十七岁的天空, 2004) and Hong Kong (prolific composer Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam], plus stylist Yang Weibo 杨蔚波, both also on Love).
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Sparkle Roll Media (CN), Beijing Times Films (CN), Cultural Investment Holdings (CN), Zhejiang Dongyang Wencai (CN), China Youth New Power Pictures (CN), Shanghai Tianren Productions (CN), Lakala Pictures (CN), Chongqing Long Zhong Long Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Beijing Times Films (CN).
Script: Hua Ming. Photography: Chen Huisheng. Editing: Zhang Chao. Music: Qi Feng, Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Music direction: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Art direction: Guo Xiu. Styling: Yang Weibo. Sound: Wang Enfeng. Visual effects: Chen Yanjun, Li Zhaohua (TWR Entertainment).
Cast: Hou Minghao (Gao Silin), Peng Yuchang (Zhang Ziyang), Gai Yuexi (Guo Sijia), Ma Ke (Time/George), Huang Ling (MC), Ming Ziyu (Mo Shihan), Gan Yuzhe (Gan), Wang Chao (Zhang Ziyang’s father), Jin Yang (Zhang Ziyang’s mother), Ren Shan (Guo Zaichun, Guo Sijia’s father), Zhou Fei (Guo Sijia’s mother), Ding Zhiyong (Gao Silin’s father), Gao Beibei (Gao Silin’s mother), Wei Chen (Fattie), Chen Hao (Big Drum), Luo Bing (Jia, headmaster), Peng Huaiyi (doctor), Li Peize (young Gao Silin), Lin Xianyu (young Zhang Ziyang), Li Muchen (young Guo Sijia), Wang Cheng (young Fattie).
Release: China, 26 Jul 2019.