Only Love Can Do This to Me
很高兴遇见。你
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 91 mins.
Director: Li Jie 李杰.
Rating: 5/10.
Odd-couple road movie, set on Australia’s east coast, adds up to little but is a pleasant enough ride.
STORY
Sydney, Australia, the present day. Chen Ding (Ling Zhenghui), a PhD student in physics at Sydney university, is unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend of five years, Zhou Ying (Zhang Doudou), who’s studying in Cairns, in the northeast of the country. Chen Ding decides he must get to Cairns as soon as possible, and ends up being driven there by headstrong Australian-born Chinese Victoria Wong (Pang Lujia) in her jeep. She’s going to Cairns to audition for a job as a photographer for National Geographic. The headstrong, outgoing Victoria Wong, whom Chen Ding calls Xiaowei, was born in Australia but speaks Mandarin. The two opposites gradually come to an understanding as they encounter various setbacks during the journey of almost 2,500 kilometres along the so-called Pacific Coast Touring Route. At the end of the first day, they’re forced to share a room they won in a pub singing contest; on the second Chen Ding has his bag stolen; on the third they end up in the family home of a man (Malcolm Bailey) suffering from Alzheimer’s; and on the fourth they give a lift to an Australian Chinese, Johnson (Lin Ludi), who makes a play for Victoria Wong and whose friends then cheat the duo out of some gambling winnings. On the fifth day, still 24 hours away from their destination, tensions between the three come to a head.
REVIEW
An odd-couple road movie-cum-rom-com set along Australia’s east-coast highway, Only Love Can Do This to Me 很高兴遇见。你 scrapes by with minimal plot and character development but plenty of easygoing charm and handsome widescreen photography. Shot back in 2015-16 but only commercially released in early 2019, following a slot in the Changchun film festival the previous autumn, it hardly registered at the Mainland box office (RMB520,000) but marks a pleasant, technically proficient feature debut by writer-director Li Jie 李杰, 32, who studied film at Ohio university in the US.
Li’s script quickly sets up a classic odd-couple pairing as introverted physics student Chen Ding is dumped over the phone by his longtime girlfriend (who’s studying up north) and decides he has to see her as soon as possible to repair the relationship. He ends up being driven by an outgoing Chinese Aussie babe with a jeep – who luckily speaks Mandarin – on a five-day journey from Sydney to Cairns that’s full of the usual setbacks. For such a generic movie, it’s hardly news that the two opposites gradually find common ground; the only doubt is whether they’ll stay together once they reach their destination.
Dialogue is more functional than anything else, and when it tries to be significant (as in some of the student’s discourses on physics and the universe) it ends up simply sounding pretentious. English dialogue during a stopover with a dysfunctional family is also awkwardly written and played.
But it says something for Li’s technical skills – with considerable help from her d.p. Lei Bin 雷斌 – that she manages to keep the film afloat with such a thin script and tiny cast. In his first major screen role, Ling Zhenghui 凌正辉, now 23, exhibits a kind of coy charm but is let down by his poor English. It’s Mainland-born, Australian-raised Pang Lujia 庞璐佳 [Lucia Pang], 24, a film-school graduate in photography, who motors the whole film as the outgoing, headstrong local who brings Ling’s shy but determined student out of his shell. Pang’s role is basically a stereotype (brash Aussie etc etc) but her fresh playing and later shading make it acceptable and finally quite touching. Another Mainland-born, Australian-raised Chinese, actor-model Lin Ludi 林路迪, 31, is okay as a handsome, boorish hitchhiker.
The Chinese title means “Happy to Run Into. You”. The film has no connection with the almost identically titled online drama series Gaoxing yujian ni 高兴遇见你 (2018). Production titles for the film included 带我去海角天涯 (“Take Me to the World’s End”) and 我的第二次初恋 (“My Second First Love”).
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Jingyue Shiji Cultural & Communication (CN). Produced by Beijing Aoyu International Cultural & Communication (CN).
Script: Li Jie. Photography: Lei Bin. Editing: Huang Di, Li Jie. Music: Yuan Sihan. Art direction: Song Ge. Costumes: Chen Tianqi. Sound: Chen Yanxin, Zhang Hanlin. Executive direction: Wang Runze.
Cast: Ling Zhenghui (Chen Ding), Pang Lujia [Lucia Pang] (Victoria Wong/Xiaowei), Lin Ludi (Johnson), Zhang Doudou (Zhou Ying), Carole Sharkey-Waters (Ruth), Malcolm Bailey (Bob, Ruth’s husband), Robin Queree (Jason, Ruth’s friend), Jeremiah Roeland (Tom), Clayton Moss (traffic policeman), Jack Ngu (Jack, hospital nurse), Sophea Hang Op (hotel receptionist), Ishah Issac (Tim).
Premiere: Changchun Film Festival, 4 Sep 2018.
Release: China, 11 Jan 2019.