Love in the Office
一路向前
China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 88 mins.
Director: Hou Liang 侯亮.
Rating: 5/10.
Generic Gen-90ers rom-com just about manages to go the distance thanks to sheer technique.
STORY
Shenzhen, Guangdong province, southern China, 2015. After he was dumped by his girlfriend (Zhang Yihuan) on graduation day, geeky Niu Dun (Chen He) decided that “for a man, love and success are forever entangled”. Now, a year later, he’s working at the government Shenzhen Research Institute (SYJ) in the department for international co-operation, whose eccentric director Li Jianhui (Zhang Songwen) announces that there will be a departmental competition for a posting to New York. Among his co-workers, Niu Dun has taken a shine to Yaoyao (Yao Xingtong), though she isn’t interested in him and has a rich boyfriend (Jang U-hyeok). Gradually, however, Yaoyao warms towards Niu Dun and cools on her boyfriend, as the latter doesn’t want her to go to New York if she wins the competition. When the boyfriend arrives at her office one day and causes a fuss, Yaoyao loses any chance of getting the posting. Other colleagues, like Zhu Aiping (Li Yiru) and Zhu Yaohua (Wang Xiao), also leave the running for personal reasons and Niu Dun looks like he has a chance of winning. Just to be sure, he tries to get some dirt on Li Jianhui – who’s having an affair with the office receptionist (Qiqi) – but then feels ashamed at what his ambition drove him to do. Then Yaoyao tells him she’s pregnant by her ex-boyfriend and wants an abortion.
REVIEW
Adapted from his own 2004 novel One Year after Graduation 毕业一天 (see cover, left), Love in the Office 一路向前 was one of two comedies that marked the return of Shaanxi-born writer-director Hou Liang 侯亮, then in his mid-30s, back to the mainstream after a spell largely making war movies. The other film, crime comedy The Big Lie Bang 谎言大爆炸 (2016), was actually shot before Love but released afterwards; both have individual flaws but remain watchable, with Love just a smidgeon better thanks to sheer technique. Before veering off for a while into war movies, Hou began his film-making career with two comedies for young people (rural kids in The Game Sports 大厨小兵, 2008; a teenage computer-game addict in The Ultimate Game 终极游戏, 2010) and then reached a kind of peak with the costume detective comedy Deadly Will 囧探佳人 (2011), an okay romp starring comedian Guo Tao 郭涛 that was his first movie for adults. Love, his first rom-com, is very much of its era – ambitious Gen-90ers in their first job, pursuing the Chinese Dream etc – but also a mild critique of ambition for its own sake. Box office was a very mild RMB6 million – though that was still over six times the amount for The Big Lie Bang.
Taking advantage of some seaside locations, Hou moves the setting from Beijing down to Shenzhen, with his dorky hero one of a group of young people working in the international department of a vague “research institute”. The back-of-a-coaster plot is a standard rom-com with him falling for a colleague who initially isn’t interested and the rest of the running time taken up with setpieces of his group fooling around: a drunken KTV party, escaping from an over-priced bar, a mishap with Viagra tablets, and so on. With bright widescreen photography by Hong Kong’s Kuang Tinghe 邝庭和, a perky score by Kuang’s compatriot Luo Jian 罗坚 [Lincoln Lo], and plenty of soundtrack songs, the whole confection just about manages to reach feature length through sheer technique, with mobile camerawork (sometimes show-offy for its own sake, as in a balcony conversation) and occasional use of split screen.
Performances are animated, if generic, with Chen He 陈赫 (then 29, and just off playing the lead in fluffy rom-com Love on the Cloud 微爱之渐入佳境, 2014) okay as the nerdy hero and the more experienced and older (32) Yao Xingtong 姚星彤 (CZ12 十二生肖, 2012; EX-Files 前任攻略, 2014) ditto as his love object. Among the lively supports, Zhang Songwen 张颂文 and Chang Yuan 常远 – both also in The Big Lie Bang – have fun as the weirdo department head and the hero’s lothario pal.
The film’s Chinese title literally means “Keep Moving Forward”. More recently, Hou directed the kids martial-arts costume fantasy 八仙过海 (2018), an online drama series.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Glory Manna Advertising (CN), Tianjin Baird Century Film & TV Media (CN), Shenzhen Huaying Investment (CN), Beijing CashFlower Media (CN). Produced by Beijing CashFlower Media (CN).
Script: Hou Liang. Script planning: Zhang Siyu, Wang Caidong, Jing Yifei, Gao Xudong. Novel: Hou Liang. Photography: Kuang Tinghe. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Luo Jian [Lincoln Lo]. Art direction: Peng Weimin, Li Yang. Styling: Li Yuntao. Sound: Tao Junjie. Executive direction: Xiaoye, Luo Jinfu.
Cast: Chen He (Niu Dun/Newton), Yao Xingtong (Yaoyao), Chang Yuan (Ka’naiji/Carnegie), Lu Haitao (Jiao Bin), Zhang Songwen (Li Jianhui, deputy director), Jang U-hyeok (Jiexi/Jason, Yaoyao’s boyfriend), Zhao Yihuan (Niu Dun’s girlfriend), Wang Xiao (Zhu Yaohua), Li Yiru (Zhang Aiping), Jessica C [Jessica Cambensy] (mixed-race girl), Yang Liuqing (White Thighs), Wang Ruoyi (spicy girl), Meng Hanci (college girl), Zhang Changchun (bar owner), Gao Junxiong, Da Wei (bouncers), Hou Liang (taxi driver), Qiqi (Chen Feifei, receptionist), Hong Lexuan (Jiao Bin’s boyfriend), Yi Fan (long-haired beauty), Li Kaishi (mermaid), Zhang Xin’er (go-go dancer), Li Lei (driver in accident).
Release: China, 6 Aug 2015.