Crazy Alien

疯狂的外星人

China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 114 mins.

Director: Ning Hao 宁浩.

Rating: 4/10.

The mis-teaming of Huang Bo and Shen Teng, plus a scrappy script, generates few laughs amid the VFX.

STORY

The present day. A DNA transfer in outer space between the people of Earth (represented by the United States of Amarnica C国) and a representative of an alien civilisation goes hopelessly wrong when maverick astronaut Zach Andrews (Matthew Morrison) frightens the alien. Meanwhile, in a World Park in a northern China coastal city, monkey trainer Geng Hao (Huang Bo) scrapes a living in a small circus handed down by his father. His ideas for a more ambitious high-wire exhibition are crushed by arrogant businessman Ma (Deng Fei), and his only friend is scrounger Shen Tengfei, aka Da Fei (Shen Teng). One night the alien crash-lands in his circus, injuring Geng Hao’s prized monkey Huanhuan; nearby chiropractor Liao (Liu Hua) patches Huanhuan up but says the animal has to rest for 100 days. Left with no source of income, Geng Hao decides to train the alien, whom he thinks is a rare type of monkey from South America and nicknames Saosao. Still dazed by the experience, the alien, whose real name is Qike, is eventually tamed and starts learning various stunts. Meanwhile, from images transmitted from the World Park by a small camera, Mission Control Centre in Amarnica thinks the alien is first in Sao Paulo, then Red Square, and then Egypt, to which places a special-forces team, led by John Stockton (Tom Pelphrey) and including Zach Andrews, flies off to find it. Meanwhile, Da Fei finds a buyer (Yu Hewei) who will offer RMB100,000 for the alien but Geng Hao refuses to sell. While they’re arguing, the alien runs off and Geng Hao and Da Fei give chase. By the time it returns it has recovered its full powers and is now very much in charge. Finally, after traversing the whole globe, the Amarnica special forces, masquerading as an American football team, arrive at World Park to snatch the alien.

REVIEW

After a gap of a decade, with Crazy Alien 疯狂的外星人 Mainland filmmaker Ning Hao 宁浩 completes a loose trilogy of black comedies begun with caper movie Crazy Stone 疯狂的石头 (2006), with which he made his name, and continued with Crazy Racer 疯狂的赛车 (2009), centred on a wannabe champion cyclist. Apart from featuring dorky comic Huang Bo 黄渤 (whose career was launched by Stone) and having “Crazy” 疯狂 in their titles, there’s nothing in common between the films – as is glaringly proved by Alien, a mish-mash this time of knockabout loser comedy and movie parodies (mainly E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Chinese Monkey films) that has the weakest script of the lot, despite being credited to eight writers. None of this seems to have worried Mainland audiences who, lured by the star teaming of Huang and popular comic Shen Teng 沈腾 (Goodbye Mr. Loser 夏洛特烦恼, 2015; Hello Mr. Billionaire 西虹市首富, 2018), plus top-quality visual effects, have shelled out RMB2.2 billion for the Chinese New Year attraction.

Ning was initially inspired by the short story A Village Teacher 乡村教师 by Mainland science-fiction writer Liu Cixin 刘慈欣, first published in the monthly magazine Science Fiction World 科幻世界 in Jan 2001, and in book form in a 2008 collection of Liu’s prize-winning short stories that included The Roaming Earth 流浪地球, whose film adaptation, known in English as The Wandering Earth, was also released during CNY 2019. (The collection took its title from the latter story, see cover, left. A 2012 collection, which also included both stories, used the title of The Village Teacher instead, see cover, below left.) In fact, apart from featuring a visiting alien, the film has nothing to do with Liu’s short story, which centres on an old teacher and his young students in a remote community, against a background of an inter-stellar conflict between carbon- and silicone-based civilisations. Despite that, Liu’s story gets a nod in the film’s opening credits.

Alien starts with a bungled DNA exchange in outer space between an alien and humans – the latter represented by “the most advanced nation on planet Earth”, the United States of Amarnica (simply “C Country” C国 in Chinese). When the alien is scared off by Amarnica’s incompetent astronaut, it crash-lands in a coastal Mainland city with a World Park in which a small-circus owner (Huang) is scraping a living with a monkey act. After his star simian is injured by the crash, he decides to train the alien instead, dubbing it Saosao 骚骚 (“Stinky”) and convinced it’s just a type of South American performing monkey. Meanwhile, Amarnica’s mission control is searching the globe for the alien, misled by images of famous landmarks in the park.

That’s about it for plot, which is gussied up with jabs at incompetent “Amarnica” imperialism, alien/sci-fi movie references, cross-talk comedy and toilet humour (in heavy northern accents) and Chinese cultural jokes (the alien behaving like Sun Wukong/Monkey; Also sprach Zarathustra re-orchestrated for traditional Chinese orchestra, etc.). The film’s central weakness – apart from the lack of any real plot – is the main teaming: Huang is at home in this kind of knockabout loser comedy but Shen, whose subtler, straight-faced humour is completely different, seems a fish out of water. Apart from a funny routine between the two in a parked car, Shen never has a chance to establish any common comic chemistry with Huang and his petty-hustler character is more a supporting role by a big name than an integral part of the goings-on. (Fortunately, Shen gets his own platform in another CNY 2019 hit, Pegasus 飞驰人生.)

Other cameos dot the action, including veteran Liu Hua 刘桦 (who goes back to Crazy Stone) as a chiropractor and popular comedian Xu Zheng 徐峥 (who modelled for the alien in close-ups) as a businessman in the end titles. But Alien is basically Huang and the SFX/VFX teams’ show. The latter create a real personality for the by-turns meek, by-turns grumpy alien, as well as a complementary one for the monkey; and the setting in a World Park, with its miniatures of famous buildings, is also milked for comic effect(s). But it’s all icing on a scrappy script whose lazy plotting never involves the viewer on an emotional level.

The film was shot during Jul-Dec 2017, with principal shooting in the northern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province.

CREDITS

Presented by Huanxi Media Group (Beijing) (CN), Huanxi Media Group (CN), Dirty Monkeys Studio (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN).

Script: Sun Xiaohang, Wu Nan, Liu Xiaodan, Pan Yiran, Dong Runnian, Ning Hao, Steven Gary Banks, Xing Aina. Original story: Ning Hao. Short story: Liu Cixin. Photography: Liao Ni, Du Jie. Editing: Du Yuan. Editing advice: Qiao Aiyu. Music: Liang Long, Wang Zongxian [Nathan Wang], Song Nan. Art direction: Zhang Xiaobing, Song Xiaojie. Styling: Liu Qian. Sound: Wang Yanwei. Action: Luo Lixian [Bruce Law], Luo Yimin [Norman Law]. Visual effects: Joel Hynek. Artistic supervision: Ryu Seong-heui, Zhang Xiaobing. Executive direction: Liu Shiliu.

Cast: Huang Bo (Geng Hao), Shen Teng (Shen Tengfei/Da Fei), Tom Pelphrey (John Stockton), Matthew Morrison (Zach Andrews, captain), Yu Hewei (Liu), Lei Jiayin (policeman), Liu Hua (Liao), Deng Fei (Ma), Daniel Hugh Kelly (United States of Amarnica president), Xu Zheng (Qika/Saosao, alien; Xu, businessman), Mekael Turner (special-forces interpreter), Wang Ge (Larry), Wang Yanwei (blind technician), Liu Shiliu.

Release: China, 5 Feb 2019.