Starry Starry Night

星空

Taiwan/China/Hong Kong, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 99 mins.

Director: Lin Shuyu 林书宇 [Tom Lin].

Rating: 4/10.

Disappointingly conventional tale of two lonely 13-year-olds, short on charm and drama.

STORY

Somewhere in East Asia, the present day. Thirteen-year-old Xie Xinmei (Xu Jiao), whose parents (Yu Chengqing, Liu Ruoying) are always arguing, fondly remembers the times when she used to live with her grandparents in the mountains. Her grandfather (Zeng Jiang), who made model animals and used to show her the stars at night, is now unwell. It’s Christmas time, and Xie Xinmei’s mother – who studied art in Paris and makes jigsaw puzzles based on classic paintings – is fed up because her latest business trip to the French capital has been cancelled. At school, Xie Xinmei is intrigued by an unconventional new boy in her class, Zhou Yujie (Lin Huimin), who does drawings of female nudes. Following him home, she sees him shoplifting in a stationery shop, and she does the same. Later, when he’s beaten up by other kids, she goes to his rescue. As the two loners spend more time together, and discover they have things in common, Xie Xinmei’s mother announces she wants a divorce. The two children decide to escape and take a train to the mountains, where Xie Xinmei can show Zhou Yujie her late grandfather’s cottage. However, on the way they get lost.

REVIEW

The popular picture books of Taiwan illustrator Liao Fubin 廖福彬, aka Jimmy Liao 几米, with their mixture of the innocent and grotesque, present a major challenge for any live-action adaptation – and it’s one that young Taiwan film-maker Lin Shuyu 林书宇 [Tom Lin] doesn’t measure up to in Starry Starry Night 星空, adapted from Liao’s 2009 The Starry Starry Night 星空. Following his promising second feature, high-school coming-of-age drama Winds of September 九降风(2008), Lin has come up with an even better-looking but also even more conventional first-love story that meanders along with no dramatic tension at all. Given that Liao’s books are unadaptable in literal terms, they require the kind of bold re-working that concentrates on character first and foremost, as the Milkyway Image 银河映像 scriptwriting team of Hong Kong director Du Qifeng 杜琪峰 [Johnnie To] did with another Liao adaptation, Turn Left Turn Right 向左走•向右做 (2003). At this stage in his career, Lin seems to lack either the courage or the imagination necessary, and has simply fallen back on a favourite Asian genre – two high-school outsiders bond, and journey in their imagination – with candy-coloured photography (courtesy talented d.p. Jake Pollock 包轩鸣) and child-like visual effects (okay to good).

Starting with a genuinely magical scene of the 13-year-old heroine in a train station, the film raises hopes that it will continue to stay on this elevated level of imagined fantasy. However, there are early hints of trouble in the girl’s home scenes, awkwardly acted by Liu Ruoying 刘若英 [René Liu] and singer Yu Chengqing 庾澄庆 as feuding parents, before the film then hooks up the two young outsiders – she from a breaking marriage, he from a broken one. Lin’s direction can hardly be faulted on a technical level; the problem is that there’s nothing really happening on screen, either between the actors or in the dreamy, manufactured tone. With no real atmosphere or developing drama, and even less magic or originality, Starry Starry Night adds up to very very little. Near the end, the audience is told it’s all about “being 13. We’re very fragile then. Please be gentle with us.” Well, maybe. But gentleness has first to be earned.

Young Mainland actress Xu Jiao 徐娇, 14, who memorably began her career playing a boy in CJ7 长江7号 (2008), is pretty flat most of the time as the 13-year-old Xie Xinmei, showing some spark only in her early scenes with newcomer Lin Huimin 林晖闵, 14. It’s not enough to sustain a film that essentially has to be carried by its young leads, despite colourful cameos by Mayday 五月天 lead guitarist Shi Jinhang 石锦航 as a teacher, actress-model Cai Shuzhen 蔡淑臻 as the boy’s single mother, Hong Kong veteran Zeng Jiang 曾江 [Kenneth Tsang] as the girl’s kindly grandpa and, in a squirmingly phoney postscript set in picturesque Olde Europe, Gui Lunmei 桂纶镁 speaking French as the adult Xie Xinmei.

CREDITS

Presented by Huayi Brothers (CN), Tomson International Entertainment Distribution (HK), Franklin Cultural Creativity Capital (CN), Atom Cinema (TW). Produced by Atom Cinema (TW).

Script: Lin Shuyu [Tom Lin]. Picture book: Liao Fubin. Photography: Jake Pollock. Editing: Xiao Yang, Cheng Xiaoze. Music: World’s End Girlfriend. Art direction: Cai Peiling. Costume design: Wei Xiangrong. Sound: Du Duzhi. Visual effects: Xiao Yang, Chang Hongsong, Lao A, Li Mingxiong, Li Jinhui (Beijing Miracle Film).

Cast: Xu Jiao (Xie Xinmei/May), Lin Huimin (Zhou Yujie/Jay), Liu Ruoying [René Liu] (Xie Xinmei’s mother), Yu Chengqing (Xie Xinmei’s father), Zeng Jiang [Kenneth Tsang] (Xie Xinmei’s grandfather), Cai Shuzhen (Zhou Yujie’s mother), Shi Jinhang (teacher), Gui Lunmei (adult Xie Xinmei), Zhuo Li (art-gallery owner).

Premiere: Busan Film Festival (New Currents), 11 Oct 2011.

Release: China, 3 Nov 2011; Hong Kong, 3 Nov 2011; Taiwan, 4 Nov 2011.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 5 Nov 2011.)