The Door
完美有多美
China, 2017, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 98 mins.
Director: Liang Dong 梁栋.
Rating: 7/10.
Lightly comic, semi-fantasy about an average man faced with an alternate universe in which all seems perfect.
STORY
Chunjiang city, Jiangsu province, east China, the present day. Car mechanic Cheng Tianle (Jiang Wu) borrows a client’s smart Bentley to visit a male fertility clinic to find out why he and his wife Dong Nan (Li Yixian) still cannot have children, as they are both healthy. The doctor (Da Bing) gives him a lot of double-talk. On the way back he happens to see onetime school friend, and now major star Zhuo Yanni (Jiang Qinqin), at a photo-shoot and ends up driving her to her next appointment. He had always fancied her from afar but never thought he stood a chance. She’s friendly but preoccupied. At home Cheng Tianle accidentally finds a scan report on his wife which says she can’t have conceive because of damage to her Fallopian tubes. That evening Cheng Tianle has a big row with her, which ends with him storming out and getting drunk. In a small restaurant he helps an old man (Wang Deshun) pay for his meal; when the latter disappears, Cheng Tianle finds a key on the table. At home he finds his wife has left, emptying the wardrobe. While drunkenly tidying up, Cheng Tianle finds a old doorway behind the wardrobe, and that the key opens the lock. He wakes up in a smart flat, where his lover Zhuo Yanni (Jiang Qinqin) is leaving to work. Outside, he has a driver (Liu Tong) waiting to drive him to a meeting at a car company, Sanneng, of which he’s the head. His high-powered assistant, Lisa (Fu Ying), calls him “John”. Taking a car, he drives to see his parents, only to kicked out by his aged father (Zhu Xu) and find his mother (Zhu Huaixu) has died. At the garage where he used to work no one recognises him; his pal there, Maolv, is now the boss and his former boss (Yue Xiaojun) is now a security guard. At his home he finds Dong Nan recognises him as a university friend but is married to another man (Ma Yuan) and has a young daughter. At dinner in a smart restaurant with Zhuo Yanni, aka Christine, she says she’s pregnant but he insists the child is not his, causing her to walk out. He wakes up in the same smart flat but is now older, with grey-flecked hair. He thinks about breaking down the door to his previous universe but decides not to. At a splashy party for Zhuo Yanni’s birthday he gives her a diamond necklace but when he later tells her they can’t marry she returns it and leaves. At work he continues to make strange decisions and exasperate his deferential colleagues – all apart from Lisa. Close to breakdown, he re-meets the old man by chance and begs to be allowed to “go home”. The old man disappears but leaves behind a second key, which Cheng Tianle uses to open the door. Back in his original universe, everyone wonders where he’s been. His parents are both still alive and he still ahs his mechanic job at the garage. But then elements from the two universes start to overlap as he goes back and forth between the two. And he finally has to choose which universe to stay in for ever.
REVIEW
A car mechanic with frustrated ambitions literally finds a key to another world in The Door 完美有多美, a lightly comic semi-fantasy by writer-director Liang Dong 梁栋. It’s an impressive debut in every way, with a strong, seasoned cast led by actor Jiang Wu 姜武 (who also doubles as creative producer 监制) and actress Jiang Qinqin 蒋勤勤 (so good in A Fool 一个勺子, 2014), plus a script that’s fresh and keeps the viewer guessing. Released in early 2017, when Liang was 35, it took only an ultra-polite RMB25 million in the wash of that year’s CNY hits, which was a pity as it’s way superior to Liang’s subsequent feature Daily Fantasy 日常幻想指南 (2021) – which also bends reality, though in a different way.
The idea of an average person being shown an alternate, supposedly ideal lifestyle isn’t new, and Liang presents it in a largely realistic way, without any splashy VFX. The first 20 minutes set up the background: a car mechanic (Jiang Wu, authentically gruff but with a twinkle in his eye) who on the home front is puzzled why he and his wife still can’t have kids despite them both having tested okay, and on the work front still has stars in his eyes. The opening scenes show him calmly borrowing a client’s Bentley to go for a ride and, when he accidentally meets an old school flame (Jiang Qinqin, oozing cool elegance) whom he’d always fancied from afar, giving her a lift to her next appointment. She’s some kind of celebrity, and is polite towards him but preoccupied; he takes it on the chin, but when he discovers his wife has been lying to him about her fertility test, the dam of his restraint finally breaks. After getting drunk, he finds a key left by an old man in the restaurant – and that it opens a hidden door at home into another world, one in which he’s head of a major company with international staff, toadying employees, and a beautiful celebrity (Jiang Qinqin) who not only fancies him but is also pregnant by him.
As he progressively moves back and forth between the two worlds, the question becomes which he will settle in when finally forced to make a choice. The dilemma is posed by the film’s Chinese title – which means “How Perfect Is Perfection” – and there’s not really much doubt which he’ll finally opt for at the end of the day. Liang chooses to separate the two universes by more than just a door: the alternate reality is presented in b&w (initially a 30-minute chunk as he first experiences it), which tends to weigh against it from the start; though the monochrome is striking in the clear, sharp widescreen photography by Xie Zhengyu 谢征宇 (Gone with the Bullets 一步之遥, 2014; Gone with the Light 被光抓走的人, 2019; Daily Fantasy), the film would have gained more subtlety if both universes had been presented in colour. On the script side, Liang cleverly solves (or gets round) most of the problems in juggling two worlds, though he still doesn’t present a good enough reason for Jiang Wu’s character to think of using the magic key to unlock the door in the first place.
Born in Dalian, northeast China, Liang studied in New Zealand before returning to the Mainland and pursuing a career as a “bad-boy” hip-hop musician (known as Pu Tao 葡桃) and music producer. After reinventing himself as a film-maker, The Door was his first theatrical feature, following online comedy Something Happened 这里有情况 (2011) which he co-wrote and co-directed in his hometown. For a feature debut he managed to snare quite a cast: apart from Jiang Wu and Jiang Qinqin, veteran Zhu Xu 朱旭 (The King of Masks 变脸, 1996; Shower 洗澡, 1999; Lan 我们天上见, 2009) pops up here and there as the lead’s comically grumpy father (“Get lost!”); China’s favourite octogenarian grandpa Wang Deshun 王德顺 as the old man who’s the cosmic gatekeeper; the wonderful but too-rarely-seen actress Yan Bingyan 颜丙燕 (Teeth of Love 爱情的牙齿, 2007; Feng Shui 万箭穿心, 2012) as a neighbourhood official; and even veteran chubby comedienne Dong Lifan 董立范 as a shouty harridan.
They’re backed up by strong performances from the younger cast, including busy character actor Li Naiwen 李乃文 (then coming off a long stretch in TV) as the lead’s breezy work pal and Hong Kong actress-singer Fu Ying 傅颖 (a long way from babelicious roles like Beach Spike 热浪球爱战, 2011) as the lead’s more than capable p.a. in his alternate universe. For an actress like Jiang Qinqin who’s now seen so rarely on either the big or small screens, it would have been nice to see her role given a bit more substance, especially as she’s the only player who can measure up to Jiang Wu’s screen presence. But that’s a small quibble in a generally well-balanced cast.
For the record, the film bears no relation to the 2007 psycho-horror The Door 门, directed by Li Shaohong 李少红.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing V Shinebrothers Film & Culture Media (CN). Produced by Beijing V Shinebrothers Film & Culture Media (CN).
Script: Liang Dong. Photography: Xie Zhengyu. Editing: Liang Dong, Nie Huazhen. Music: Dong Dongdong. Art direction: Zhang Xiaobing. Costumes: Zhang Ting. Styling: Fan Yongzhong. Sound: Wen Bo. Action: Chen Chunkun. Visual effects: Yang Zhi. Executive direction: Liao Bin.
Cast: Jiang Wu (Cheng Tianle; John), Jiang Qinqin (Zhuo Yanni; Christine), Li Naiwen (Maolv/Donkey, garage worker; Mao Dali, garage boss), Zhu Xu (Cheng Huairen, Cheng Tianle’s father), Fu Ying (Lisa, John’s assistant), An Hu (Liu Tong, John’s driver; Lisa’s driver), Hu Ming (San Ge/Brother Three, hoodlum), Wang Deshun (old man), Dong Lifan (Wu, loudmouthed customer; loudmouthed board member), Yue Xiaojun (Li, garage boss; garage security guard), Li Yixian (Dong Nan, Cheng Tianle’s wife; old university friend), Da Bing (fertility-clinic doctor), Hong Chen (Tiaotiao, hoodlum’s girl; garage boss’ girl), Du Weihan (Shawn), Ma Yuan (Dong Nan’s husband), Zhu Huaixu (Han Min, Cheng Tianle’s mother), Sha Baoliang (Shazi), Cheng Yuanyuan (worker), Yan Bingyan (Chen, neighbourhood official), Sun Wei (Huzi, garage worker with glasses), Zhu Hongjun (restaurant owner), Sun Yixuan (Qingqing), Qiao Lisheng (Zhao).
Release: China, 17 Feb 2017.