So Young
致我们终将逝去的青春
China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 132 mins.
Director Zhao Wei 赵薇.
Rating: 7/10.
Actress Zhao Wei’s directing debut is an impressive ensemble portrait of student friends that loses its grip once it leaves campus.
STORY
A city in southern China, c. 1994-95. Zheng Wei (Yang Zishan), 18, arrives at Jingnan Polytechnic to study civil engineering for four years. In the dormitory she finds herself sharing a room with Ruan Guan (Jiang Shuying), a beauty from the Buyi ethnic minority in Guizhou province; Li Weijuan (Zhang Yao), a nosy know-all from a small town; and tomboy Zhu Xiaobei (Liu Yase). Zheng Wei only enrolled at the university to be with her childhood sweetheart Li Jing (Han Geng); when she hears that he’s gone to the US instead, without telling her, she’s distraught. But she and her roommates all get drunk and become firm pals. During a visit to a room shared by Zhang Kai (Bao Bei’er) and his rich friend Xu Kaiyang (Zheng Kai), Zheng Wei has a violent argument with their gruff roommate Chen Xiaozheng (Zhao Youting), who insults her. To get her own back, Zheng Wei later humiliates him in the student canteen – and then realises she’s actually fallen for him. Turning down a romantic approach from Xu Kaiyang, she keeps coming on publicly to Chen Xiaozheng, who continues to reject her. Her behaviour is not appreciated by Zeng Yu (Wang Jiajia), the daughter of the university’s associate head, who is Chen Xiaozheng’s only friend and secretly loves him. That winter, Li Weijuan’s hometown boyfriend suddenly turns up, disorienting her; so too does Ruan Guan’s boyfriend, Zhao Shiyong (Huang Ming), desperate for her help with a personal problem. Meanwhile, Zheng Wei finally wears down Chen Xiaozheng, who commits to being her boyfriend, though as the only child from a poor family he’s still very committed to his studies and career. Over Chinese New Year the whole group visits Ruan Guan’s home village: Xu Kaiyang shows he’s still interested in Zheng Wei but she and Chen Xiaozheng finally consolidate their relationship. As graduation nears, Zheng Wei suddenly hears some shocking news regarding Chen Xiaozheng’s future plans. Some three years later, she’s working as an assistant manager at China State Construction Engineering, and her other former classmates have all moved on in their lives. As the group gets together for a reunion, Zheng Wei’s past relationships come back to haunt her.
REVIEW
The essayish 2007 novel by Xin Yiwu 辛夷坞 about youthful affairs of the heart – already adapted into a radio play in 2009 – gets a lavish big-screen adaptation in So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春, an impressive directorial debut by one of China’s top actresses, Zhao Wei 赵薇 (Shaolin Soccer 少林足球, 2001; Red Cliff 赤壁, 2008; Painted Skin: The Resurrection 画皮II, 2012), that rapidly goes off the boil in its final stages. Zhao’s evidently sympathetic handling of her cast (including Taiwan’s Zhao Youting 赵又廷 [Mark Chao], with whom she recently acted in the Beijing portion of Love 爱, 2012), the subtly textured, period-look photography by d.p. Li Ran 李然 (who shot the verismo dramas The End of Year 一年到头, 2007, and Invisible Killer 无形杀, 2009), plus nimble editing by Hong Kong veteran Chen Zhiwei 陈志伟 [Andy Chan] (Echoes of the Rainbow 岁月神偷, 2009; Overheard 窃听风云, 2009; Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 西游 降魔篇, 2013) result in a powerhouse first 90 minutes that draw an involving portrait of love, friendship, ambition and broken dreams among a group of university students in mid-1990s China.
Alas, as the film abruptly flashes forward several years to pick up the characters in the big city in the early 2000s, all the dramatic credit accumulated to that point is squandered by a final 40 minutes that seem rushed and fabricated, with none of the earlier dramatic traction. As a two-part movie running some three hours, So Young could have been a truly epic portrait of youthful emotional errors and their later consequences. As it stands, it’s a remarkable directorial debut by Zhao Wei that’s well acted by its ensemble cast but is more of an ambitious, great-looking torso than a single movie.
Zhao’s actor-focused direction and the script by Li Qiang 李墙 (Peacock 孔雀, 2004; The Postmodern Life of My Aunt 姨妈的后现代生活, 2006; And the Spring Comes 立春, 2006) show a gift for rapidly sketching characters without any sense of rush, especially in the terrific opening half-hour set in the university dormitories of the (unnamed) southern city. (The movie was actually shot at Nanjing Medical University.) The sense of communality among the mixed group of girls and boys – at a time when China was on the cusp of change from old-style socialism to a modern market economy – is terrific, aided in no small part by a cast of names and newer actors who blend superbly. Attention to period detail is spot-on throughout.
In her first leading role after supporting parts in three Taiwan romances (Close to You 近在咫尺, 2010; In Case of Love 街角的小王子, 2010; Lovesick 恋爱恐慌症, 2011), 26-year-old Mainland actress Yang Zishan 杨子珊 impresses from the start as smalltown girl Zheng Wei who has to rapidly adjust not only to a diverse collection of roommates (nosy control freak, ethnic beauty, rumbustious tomboy) but also to the fact that her childhood sweetheart has dumped her. In a short space of time, Zheng Wei morphs from quiet and respectful into a feisty go-getter with a real temper who then sets out on the impossible task of winning over an anti-social fellow student, Chen Xiaozheng, who’s insulted her dignity. A variable actor who can be either wooden or quietly charming, Zhao Youting (Monga 艋舺, 2010; First Time 第一次, 2012) is clever casting in the basically unlikeable role of the boorish Chen Xiaozheng, and gives the character a slow-burning appeal; but the offbeat, comic-dramatic love story between him and Zheng Wei really sustains itself thanks to Yang’s full-on playing.
Though the relationship between Zheng Wei and Chen Xiaozheng is the film’s dramatic tentpole, it’s only one of many that jostle for attention in the film’s crowded opening, as So Young deftly paints a whole social universe within the university, as the youngsters experience their first loves and disappointments. At the film’s present running time, there simply isn’t room to do all of the characters justice: of Zheng Wei’s roommates, nosy Li Weijuan and tomboy Zhu Xiaobei (lively actress-singer Liu Yase 刘亚瑟 in a severe haircut) suffer the most in the later stages, with peremptorily developed storylines. Ruan Guan, a beauty from an ethnic minority, gets a good chunk of the action alongside Zheng Wei, and actress Jiang Shuying 江疏影 transforms what looks like being a purely decorative role into one of considerable emotional substance. In a smaller role as Zheng Wei’s love rival, Wang Jiajia 王嘉佳 registers a strong presence in only a few scenes.
Aside from Zhao Youting, the men fare less well in what is basically a female-centred movie. Zheng Kai 郑恺 (Stand by Me 奋斗, 2011) is charismatic as a rich kid who holds a torch for Zheng Wei, and character actor Bao Bei’er 包贝尔 (the scholar’s servant in Mural 画壁, 2011) teams likeably with him as a fellow skirt-chaser. As Zheng Wei’s childhood sweetheart who pops up from her past, second-billed male lead Han Geng 韩庚, a popular singer who forged his career in South Korea, is about as colourless here as in My Kingdom 大武生 (2011). However, the ensemble work and sense of overall rhythm are so good that the viewer is still carried along by the movie despite these flaws.
It’s only in the final 40 minutes, as one after another development is thrown at the audience in TV drama style, that So Young starts to lose its emotional grip. Maybe a lot of material from this section was dumped during post-production to bring a three-hour cut down to a releasable length. As it stands, this section feels more like an extended coda than the second half of a long-limbed drama.
During production, the film went under various English titles that more closely translated the Chinese, including To Our Youth That Is Fading Away and To Our Eventual Lost Youth. One can only hope that one day an extended Director’s Cut will eventually emerge on ancillary.
CREDITS
Presented by HS Media (Beijing) Investment (CN), China Film (CN).
Script: Li Qiang. Novel: Xin Yiwu. Photography: Li Ran. Editing: Chen Zhiwei [Andy Chan]. Music: Dou Peng. Art direction: Li Yang. Sound: Zhu Yanfeng.
Cast: Zhao Youting [Mark Chao] (Chen Xiaozheng), Yang Zishan (Zheng Wei), Han Geng (Li Jing, Zheng Wei’s childhood sweetheart), Jiang Shuying (Ruan Guan), Zhang Yao (Li Weijuan), Liu Yase (Zhu Xiaobei), Wang Jiajia (Zeng Yu), Bao Bei’er (Zhang Kai), Zheng Kai (Xu Kaiyang), Huang Ming (Zhao Shiyong), Pan Hong (Chen Xiaozheng’s mother), Han Hong (Zijuan, TV presenter), Yang Lan (herself, TV presenter), Tong Liya (Shi Jie, Li Jing’s suicidal girlfriend), Huang Xiaolei (girlfriend of Li Jing’s workmate), You Liping (Pan), Sun Wei (Dr. Wu Jiang, Ruan Guan’s fiance), Cui Wenlu (Fatso), Wang Sen (Li Jing’s workmate), Yuan Biao (policeman).
Release: China, 26 Apr 2013.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 16 May 2013.)