Kill Mobile
来电狂响
China, 2018, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 102 mins.
Director: Yu Miao 于淼.
Rating: 7/10.
Black comedy on mobile-phone culture doesn’t cut very deep but smoothly entertains with a prime cast.
STORY
Beijing, the present day, 19 Aug. Two couples – husband and wife Wu Xiaojiang (Qiao Shan) and Li Nan (Huo Siyan), plus jobbing screenwriter Jia Di (Tong Dawei) and his devoted fiancee Bai Xuejiao (Xi Mengyao) – arrive at the flat of their married friends, university art lecturer Wen Bo (Tian Yu) and psychologist Dai Dai (Dai Lele), for a dinner party. Also arriving, after thinking about cancelling, is high-powered singleton executive Han Xiao (Ma Li). Housewife Li Nan gets annoyed by workaholic company boss Wu Xiaojiang always checking his mobile phone and also not letting her see what he’s watching, and discussion shifts to how mobiles have taken over people’s lives and hold all one’s secrets nowadays. Wu Xiaojiang, who’s been clandestinely watching a webcam girl, gets nervous when Han Xiao provocatively suggests they all swap their mobiles for the evening. Then Dai Dai proposes they all put their phones in the middle of the table so they can talk for a change – but they should all unlock them so everyone can hear any incoming calls or text messages. A text (“thinking of your body”) comes in for Jia Di, but it turns out to be Wen Bo playing a joke. When the three men go to another room to inspect Wen Bo’s latest book, the four women are left alone and Li Nan, still annoyed at Wu Xiaojiang’s behaviour, plans to sneak a look at her husband’s phone. Before she can, however, the men all quickly return. Then Han Xiao’s mother (Li Ping) calls to say a package has arrived at their flat with strange objects like a whip and handcuffs inside. Han Xiao quickly cuts off the call, saying it’s a wrong delivery, and when the others make fun of her she leaves the table to calm down. Then Dai Dai receives a call from a plastic-surgery clinic conforming her appointment for breast enlargement – which is news to Wen Bo. During a smoking break on the balcony, Wu Xiaojiang admits to the wordly Han Xiao that he has a regular appointment at 21:00 with a webcam girl (Yi Seong-min) and asks if they can temporarily swap phones to avoid embarrassment. But that only leads to a different kind of embarrassment for Wu Xiaojiang, and meanwhile other revelations quickly follow for all the others round the table.
REVIEW
Seven friends find their secrets laid bare during a dinner-party game in Kill Mobile 来电狂响, the latest re-make of the Italian film Perfect Strangers Perfetti sconosciuti (2016), relocated to the milieu of Beijing’s Gen-80ers. The directorial debut of scriptwriter Yu Miao 于淼 – who adapted the 1976 French comedy Pardon Mon Affaire Un éléphant ça trompe énormément into the entertaining Some Like It Hot 情圣 (2016) – the content is ideally suited for mobile-enslaved China but doesn’t quite deliver as the social critique it promises to be (presumably from fear of alienating the core millennial audience, as well as phone manufacturers). Though a real movie about the Mainland’s mobile addiction still remains to be made, this smoothly packaged, well-played entertainment will do in the meantime, even if it never penetrates very deep at an emotional level. In its first two weeks it’s taken a handsome RMB570 million on the Mainland. [Final tally was RMB641 million.]
Steered by skilled creative producer Zhang Yibai 张一白 (a director in his own right), it’s much less dark than the Italian original and more similar in look and atmosphere to the most recent re-make, South Korea’s Intimate Strangers 완벽한 타인 (2018), released only two months earlier. Many of the original’s script revelations are the same or similar; Kill‘s main differences are to change the sole singleton at the dinner from a man into a high-flying female executive (resulting in a different revelation for her, though one that’s capped by a real waah! shock-cut at the end) and to punctuate the dinner with cutaways to outside characters. The latter broadens the principals’ backgrounds but undercuts the developing story within the confines of the flat, reducing it to a series of small episodes rather than a claustrophobic, play-like drama. The result only makes the already light tone even lighter.
Luckily, Kill is served by a fine cast, several of whom have stage experience and were also in Some Like It Hot, co-produced by the same company, New Classics Media. Ensemble playing is especially good – making one regret the cutaways even more – and helps raise the script, lead written by Yu’s wife and frequent TVD collaborator Li Xiao 李潇 (Some Like It Hot), at least a notch. As the quiet motor to much of the plot, versatile comedienne Ma Li 马丽 brings a quiet authority to her role as the singleton executive who’s not as confident as she seems, while comedian Qiao Shan 乔杉 (the chief heavy in Father and Son 父子雄兵, 2017; the fan in City of Rock 缝纫机乐队, 2017) has the showier moments, with a notable scene in which a mobile-swap come back to bite him in the arse. As his volatile wife, Huo Siyan 霍思燕 (Distant Thunder 迷城, 2010; Double Xposure 二次曝光, 2012), who’s been seen too little of late on the big screen, matches Qiao blow for blow in their marriage squalls.
Between the two extremes, TV’s Dai Lele 代乐乐 is fine as the outwardly composed psychologist hostess, Tong Dawei 佟大为 well-cast as the smooth-talking screenwriter, and, in her first notable part, Shanghai model Xi Mengyao 奚梦瑶, 29, gives some substance to the role of his love-struck fiancee. The supporting cast is decorated with names, including comedian Ai Lun 艾伦 as a ring-maker and Swiss-born Korean actress Yi Seong-min 이성민 | 李成敏 [Clara Lee] as a web-cam girl.
With all this talent inter-acting seamlessly on screen, it’s a pity that Kill Mobile doesn’t cut deeper. A B&W title sequence, of urbanites glued to their phones, promises a more trenchant critique of the culture than ever emerges, despite a nice final speech by Ma’s executive that brings the theme full circle. Comedy remains the prime objective throughout, with a wrap-up that’s pretty civilised compared with earlier versions, even if not always convincing (the hostess’ decision, the fiancee’s decision). As usual in Zhang’s productions, technical credits are very smooth, though the propulsive music by Peng Fei 彭飞 is a bit too heavy-handed.
The Chinese title literally means “An Incoming Call’s Crazy Ring”. Remakes so far of the Italian original have also included Greek, Spanish, Turkish, French and Mexican versions, with more on the way.
CREDITS
Presented by New Classics Media (CN), Such A Good Film (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Whale Films (CN).
Script: Li Xiao, Wang Si, Wang Huan. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Zhou Xiaolin. Music: Peng Fei. Art direction: Jiang Hanlin [Jeffrey Kong]. Styling: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung]. Sound: Yang Jiang, Zhao Nan.
Cast: Ma Li (Han Xiao), Qiao Shan (Wu Xiaojiang), Huo Siyan (Li Nan), Xi Mengyao (Bai Xuejiao), Tong Dawei (Jia Di), Dai Lele (Dai Dai), Tian Yu (Wen Bo), Ai Lun (Zhang Chi), Zhang Chenguang (Bai Xuejiao’s father), Yang Le (Bai Xuejiao’s ex-boyfriend), Yi Seong-min [Clara Lee] (webcam girl), He Hongshan (Wang Litong), Xu Dongdong (Bai Xuejiao’s step-mother), Xu Di (Wu Xiaojiang’s mother), Li Ping (Han Xiao’s mother), Liu Qi (Shen Ning), Zhang Fan (Martin).
Release: China, 28 Dec 2018.