Begin, Again

亲爱的  新年好

China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 112 mins.

Director: Peng Youlun 彭宥纶.

Rating: 6/10.

Light drama of a woman’s emotional and career choices in her early 30s is too shallow and contrived.

STORY

Beijing, 14 Mar 2019. On White Day, Bai Shujin (Bai Baihe), 32, surprises her writer boyfriend Chen Nian (Wen Shenghao) with flowers at his flat in Chaoyang district but is then dumped by him after sex; the same evening she hears the rent on her flat in Shuangjing district has increased by RMB2,000 a month. She also has the worry of her mother (Xu Di), who lives two hours’ train ride outside Beijing and suffers from cerebellar ataxia, and at the property agency where she’s worked for a year she’s under pressure because of her declining sales figures. Though she used to work in publishing, Bai Shujin insists that property selling is what she wants to do, but she feels the heat from even her young trainee, Zhong Yao (Wei Daxun), 25, let alone other staff like the ambitious Feng Jinjin (Lv Xingchen). To cover her rent increase she ends up subletting a room to a girl (Zhang Zifeng) she’d bumped into on the street after being dumped by Chen Nian. The girl has come to Beijing to find the boyfriend who split with her by phone. Initially, the older Bai Shujin finds the girl’s constant perkiness annoying; but eventually the two bond, during a boozy night, over having both been dumped by boyfriends. After bumping into Chen Nian in a bakery, Bai Shujin decides to have a clear-out in her flat and start a new life; she also throws away her old manuscripts, though the girl secretly rescues an unfinished one, 人生需要揭穿 (“Life Needs Revealing”). An old college friend, Qi Hong (Zhao Ziqi), who’s just split up with her boyfriend, reminds Bai Shujin how they idealistically went into business together 10 years ago. Bai Shujin says she now has no dreams and just wants to make money. One day, Bai Shujin and Zhong Yao separately have the idea of leafleting the same area; they spend time together, grow closer and Bai Shujin’s sales improve. Despite their difference in age, Zhong Yao finally invites her out on a date to see a play, but at the last minute Bai Shujin has to rush back to her hometown when her mother has an emergency. While there, Bai Shujin decides to leave behind her life in Beijing and care for her mother at home – a decision that shocks both the girl (who’s sent off Bai Shujin’s manuscript to some publishers) and Zhong Yao.

REVIEW

A good-looking light drama about a woman’s emotional and career choices in her early 30s, Begin, Again 亲爱的  新年好 is pretty much what it says on the can but let down by a contrived, novelistic script that lacks any real drama. Yet again in her career, actress Bai Baihe 白百何 is the main reason to watch this first feature by Mainland film-maker Peng Youlun 彭宥纶, whose prior experience has been in musicvideos, TV programmes and documentaries. But even Bai’s contained acting skills and sad, winsome looks can’t bring much emotional depth to the material, which tries to squeeze a story of personal regeneration into the format of a positive New Year movie. Box office was a blah RMB63 million.

In light of the flop of A City Called Macau 妈阁是座城 (2019) and crime drama The Missing.. 绑架者 (2017), it’s been a while since Bai, 35, has had a hit with any movie she’s had to carry (Monster Hunt 捉妖记, 2015; Go Away Mr. Tumor! 滚蛋吧！肿瘤君 (2015). Generally at her best in rom-commy stuff, she needs stronger material than provided here by scriptwriter Dingding Zhang 丁丁张 (pen name of Zhang Hang 张航, 41), adapting his own 2018 novel Lonely in the City 只在此刻的拥抱 (see cover, left).

The original work focused on a girl coming to Beijing and sharing a flat with an older woman who was still finding herself; the film centres more on the latter character (Bai), with the girl – unnamed in the movie – more a perky appendage who provides some light relief. As played by Zhang Zifeng 张子枫, 18, she’s more light relief than an equal partner: the teen actress was fine with her brand of sad sparkiness in youth comedies like How Are You 李雷和韩梅梅 昨日重现 (2017) and Go Brother 快把我哥带走 (2018) but here just seems to get in the way of the main story. The two women supposedly bond over both being dumped by boyfriends, but it comes over more as a script device than a believable friendship between a teenager and a 32-year-old career woman.

The other problem is that Zhang’s screenplay just spins its wheels for most of the time, with no real drama and a mass of unexplored avenues: an old college friend (and former business partner) of Bai’s character – well played in a couple of scenes by TV actress Zhao Ziqi 赵子琪 – the self-centred ex-boyfriend (Taiwan’s Wen Shenghao 温升豪), a competitive office bitch (Lv Xingchen 吕星辰), and even the sick mother back home (veteran Xu Di 许娣). That just leaves the young work trainee with whom Bai’s character forms a tentative love affair, brightly played by Wei Daxun 魏大勋, 30 (The Last Wish 小小的愿望, 2019; Somewhere Winter 大约在冬季, 2019), but rather in a vacuum.

Even the background of Bai’s character is thinly sketched: a past in writing/publishing, a dodgy present in real-estate selling, a male friend back in her hometown, a sick mother with cerebellar ataxia. But all are tangentially dealt with, evoking no real emotion. A very novelistic device 80 minutes in, to resolve the uncomfortable relationship with the much younger trainee, finally makes the whole contrived plot jump the rails.

Bai’s typically reined-in, dignified performance makes most of the film watchable, as do some of the individual performances and episodes, so long as the viewer doesn’t expect much more than a slice of New Year fluff. The sweet, descriptive score, mirroring the fluctuating moods, is also a plus, along with the widescreen images of December-y Beijing by Hong Kong d.p. Li Yaohui 黎耀辉 [Lai Yiu-fai] and tight editing by his compatriot Chen Zhiwei 陈志伟 [Andy Chan].

The film’s Chinese title means “Happy New Year, Dear”. The title of an unfinished manuscript that Bai’s character is meant to have written is actually that of a 2012 book by Zhang, Life Needs Revealing 人生需要揭穿 (see cover, left), made into an online series of shorts in 2013 (below, left).

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Maoyan Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), New Clues Film (CN), Shanghai Xintiao Culture Media (CN), Author’s Journey (Beijing) (CN).

Script: Dingding Zhang. Novel: Dingding Zhang. Photography: Li Yaohui [Lai Yiu-fai]. Editing: Chen Zhiwei [Andy Chan]. Music: Bang Jun-seok, Shen Bi’ang [Björn Shen], Pedro Osuna. Art direction: Jiang Hanlin [Jeffrey Kong]. Styling: Wang Jiahui. Sound: Qi Dapen, Chen Yue, Zhao Ying. Visual effects: Li Tao (Freedom Creatives). Executive direction: Wang Zhun, Liu Yizhou.

Cast: Bai Baihe (Bai Shujin), Zhang Zifeng (girl), Wei Daxun (Zhong Yao), Xu Di (Bai Shujin’s mother), Li Jianyi (Bai Shujin’s father), Lv Xingchen (Feng Jinjin), Yuan Wenkang (Tai Shen), Wen Shenghao (Chen Nian), Zhao Ziqi (Qi Hong), Hai Yitian (Bai Shujin’s boss), Bai Jugang, Wu Haochen, Aru’na, Liu Chang, Lv Yulai, Zhao Yang, Zhao Tianyu.

Release: China, 31 Dec 2019.