Sweet Alibis

甜蜜杀机

Taiwan, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 113 mins.

Director: Lian Yiqi 连奕琦.

Rating: 7/10.

Smartly written and played crime comedy is silly but entertaining fun.

STORY

Gaoxiong, southern Taiwan, Mar 2013. Detective Wang Zhiyi (Su Youpeng) is 36, single, and lives with his student nephew Junwei (Lin Bohong); he is terrified of using his gun and subject to panic attacks before operations. Wang Zhiyi is teamed with rookie detective Gao Yiping (Lin Yichen) on her first day, little knowing she’s actually the daughter of the city’s police chief (Tao Chuanzheng). The two are part of a stakeout of a mall where Wu Zhongdi (Wu Zhongtian), the biggest amphetamine dealer in Gaoxiong, is to pick up some drugs. The swap in a cinema ends in chaos, with Wu Zhongdi taking his supplier, Chen Dong (A Ken), hostage and making off with both the drugs and his own money. During Wu Zhongdi’s escape via the underground car park, Zhuang, head of a gay gang of loan sharks trading as Love Village, is wounded while pursuing a former employee, Pachingo (Gao Mengjie), who embezzled money from him. The next day, Wang Zhiyi and Gao Yiping visit the wounded Chen Dong in hospital and Wang Zhiyi’s nephew turns up, visiting Chen Dong, who is his teacher. Later, while questioning Zhuang, Wang Zhiyi and Gao Yiping are assigned to investigate the case of a poisoned dog belonging to Qin Yanhui (Lin Jialing), the mistress of their boss, police captain Shi Huolong (Ma Nianxian). Gao Yiping’s highly developed sense of smell detects the dog died from eating chocolate, and Qin Yanhui suspects that Gu Youxin (Du Yan), the daughter of a local lunchbox maker, may be to blame. When questioning Gu Youxin at her father’s shop, Wang Zhiyi’s nephew comes by, clearly infatuated with Gu Youxin, who is at the same high school. Zhuang sends out an order to find Wu Zhongdi, who is in hiding, but Wu Zhongdi, who lives in the same apartment block as Qin Yanhui, drops dead from eating the same make of chocolate as the dog. With Wu Zhongdi still missing, Wang Zhiyi’s nephew, who was actually making the amphetamines for Chen Dong to sell to Wu Zhongdi, cuts a deal directly with Zhuang. Meanwhile, Wang Zhiyi and Gao Yiping discover where Wu Zhongdi has been hiding but find him dead in his flat. At the mortuary, they meet Wu Zhongdi’s elder twin, actor Wu Zhongtian (Wu Zhongtian), who has come to pay his respects to his brother. Gao Yiping has the idea of smoking out the killer by pretending that Wu Zhongdi is still alive and Wu Zhongtian impersonating him.

REVIEW

After making her big-screen comeback at the ripe old age of 29 with the slick rom-com Lovesick 恋爱恐慌症 (2011), Taiwan TV actress Lin Yichen 林依晨 finds another fun vehicle to display her comedic skills in Sweet Alibis 甜蜜杀机. Paired this time with hard-working actor-singer Su Youpeng 苏有朋 [Alec Su], now 40 but still boyish-looking, Lin forges different but equally good chemistry as she did with mumbly heartthrob Chen Bolin 陈柏霖 in Lovesick, this time playing a by-the-book rookie detective to Su’s cowardly cop as they investigate a series of deaths-by-chocolate in the port city of Gaoxiong. (The film’s Chinese title means “Sweet Murders”.)

After his intruiguing mystery-drama Make Up 命运化妆师 (2011), centred on a female mortician, this second feature by writer-director Lian Yiqi 连奕琦 shows him again trying to do something fresh within the often predictable limits of Taiwan cinema. In Make Up, he gave actress Xie Xinying 谢欣颖 one of her most substantial roles to date, and he does the same, in a lighter way, for Lin here, playing down her goofy side and playing up her tomboyish determination.

Unlike in Make Up, silliness is the order of the day in Alibis, which has a plot that requires a computer to stay abreast of, everyone seemingly involved in some kind of skullduggery, and characters who include a detective with a highly developed sense of smell (Lin), a gay old loan shark with a murderous transsexual “wife” (veterans Lei Hong 雷洪, Lang Zuyun 郎祖筠), and TV actor Wu Zhongtian [Matt Wu] 吴中天 playing both himself and his twin, drug-dealing brother. The opening joke of Su’s cop transfixed by a woman’s cleavage as Lin’s rookie analyses a death-by-chocolate pretty much sets the tone, but the script by Lian, Yu Shangmin 于尚民 (Make Up) and Chen Jiazhen 陈嘉振 has a liveliness and constant invention that puts it well above most local comedies coming out of Taiwan nowadays, as well as not relying on linguistic double entendres that only work locally.

That genuine sense of fun carries the movie through sequences that would have fallen flat in a less well written and acted farce. Lian & Co. keep throwing crazed ideas at the audience – like Su’s cop explaining the plot via a variety act, or Lang’s transsexual singing a love song to her dead “husband” – that only come off thanks to the fine on-screen chemistry between the whole cast – not least between Su’s slacker and Lin’s swot, which makes one hope they’ll re-team soon. Wu, who was cardboardy as the husband in Make Up, gets much more to play with in his double role, and even Taiwan’s TV Drama Queen, Lin Xinru 林心如 [Ruby Lin], pops up in a cameo near the end. Taken in the right spirit, Alibis is simply a good lark, and just about manages to go the distance at almost two hours.

Technical credits, starting with the manga-like main titles, are smart. Tight editing by Hong Kong’s Li Dongquan 李栋全 [Wenders Li] keeps things on the move without undue haste, and yellow-tinged photography by Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che] (Make Up; Tiny Times 1 小时代, 2013) helps situate events in an off-noir world of their own. Alas, as on so many Taiwan films, the English subtitles turn Chinese names around and saddle characters with distracting English ones. In addition, the translation of the nickname for Wu’s drug-dealer (“Snack”) completely misses the joke of the original Chinese (草纸, “Loo Paper”).

CREDITS

Presented by JA Production (TW), Arrow Cinematic Group (TW), Vision Plus (TW), Taipei Postproduction (TW), Ko-Hiong-Lang (TW). Produced by JA Production (TW), Arrow Cinematic Group (TW).

Script: Yu Shangmin, Chen Jiazhen, Lian Yiqi. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Li Dongquan [Wenders Li], Lin Yongyi. Music: Yang Wanqian. Production design: Guo Yijun. Art direction: Liu Yiru, Ke Zhimin. Costume design: Lin Mangyun. Sound: Xu Zhengyi, Du Duzhi, Liu Xiaocao. Special effects: Wang Weixiang. Visual effects: Huang Hanlin.

Cast: Lin Yichen (Gao Yiping), Su Youpeng [Alec Su] (Wang Zhiyi), Lang Zuyun (Ye Guohong/Rita, aka Ricky, Zhuang’s lover), Lei Hong (Zhuang, boss), Wu Zhongtian [Matt Wu] (Wu Zhongdi/Mark Wu, aka Caozhi/Snack; Wu Zhongtian/Matt Wu, his elder twin brother), Ma Nianxian (Shi Huolong, police captain), A Ken (Chen Dong), Zhu Zhiying (Xiaoling/Linda, Chen Dong’s wife), Gao Mengjie (Pachingo, Zhuang’s assistant), Lin Bohong (Wang Junwei/Johnny, Wang Zhiyi’s nephew), Du Yan [Zhang Weiting] (Gu Youxin/Yoyo, Pachingo’s girlfriend), Lin Xinru [Ruby Lin] (woman on blind date), Bai Yun [Jackie Lee] (Gao Yushan/Clouds), Lin Jialing (Qin Yanhui/Betty), Tao Chuanzheng (police chief), Lin Yincun (police commander), Xu Mingzhi, Huang Jiefu (Love Village gangsters), Zhang Fengshuo (Xiaodao/Dagger, detective), Li Youlin (Fei Dong/Fat Dong, detective), Lin Weiling (Weiling/Ling, detective), Wu Shaojun (Shuiwa/Frog, detective), Xu Xikang (Lichang/Miles, detective), Chen Pengzhou (Jiamin, detective), Yi Fan (Love Village gangster), Zhang Zaixing (Da Fei), Lin Zhixiang (Lin), Qiu Shufeng (Feng), Chen Rongbin (forensic surgeon), Gao Yifeng (Wu, doctor), Huang Pengren (newsreader), Sang Shanxue (motel employee).

Release: Taiwan, 17 Jan 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 28 Mar 2014.)