Yesterday Once More

谁的青春不迷茫

China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 110 mins.

Director: Yao Tingting 姚婷婷.

Rating: 7/10.

Nicely cast and directed, this high-school coming-of-age drama wears its themes lightly.

STORY

Yucai High School, Beixi municipality, Fujian province, southern China, 2001. Relentlessly pressured by her mother (Liu Mintao), class monitor Lin Tianjiao (Guo Shutong) is determined to make it to college, and has given up everything, including boys and her passion for astronomy, that could get in her way of studying finance at elite Qinghua University, Beijing. During an exam, however, she is almost caught cheating, and is only rescued by rebel classmate Gao Xiang (Bai Jingting), who takes the blame instead. Embarrassed over how to deal with the boy’s action, she offers him RMB50; instead, he tells her to do all his homework for him. Annoyed by his cockiness, she tries to embarrass him in class one day but ends up being embarrassed herself when he announces that she fancies him. Meanwhile, as the whole school starts gossiping about them, Lin Tianjiao’s younger brother, Lin Zi’ao (Hu Xiansu), gets a crush on her best friend, Lu Tiantian (Wang Herun), who already has a geeky boyfriend, Ou Xiaoyang (Ding Guansen). Lin Tianjiao tries to get her revenge on Gao Xiang by inventing a fictional girlfriend for him, Xiaohua, who sends him notes and gifts at school. But the ruse backfires and she finds herself falling for him. When Gao Xiang, an aeroplane/flying fan, hang glides off the school building during an outdoor assembly, he’s temporarily banned from school. Lin Tianjiao visits him at home, where he lives with his grandfather (Wang Deshun) and hangs out with biker pals. When he returns to school, Gao Xiang starts studying more conscientiously, influenced by Lin Tianjiao’s dedication. And when Gao Xiang is set up by a jealous rich kid, Huang Tao (Li Hongyi), for stealing a watch, Lin Tianjiao sticks by him. Gao Xiang’s free thinking gradually influences her own attitude towards studying, especially when she discovers something about her own family.

REVIEW

Even down to its Chinese title (“Whose Youth Is Not Confused”), there doesn’t seem to be an original bone in the whole of Yesterday Once More 谁的青春不迷茫, a high-school coming-of-age movie set a decade or so ago with a modern-day coda. But the lightly-handled direction by Yao Tingting 姚婷婷, 30, in her first big-screen feature after the not-so-dissimilar online drama series Back in Time 匆匆那年 (2014), produced by tv.sohu.com; the likeable cast, led by young actor Bai Jingting 白敬亭 and actress Guo Shutong 郭姝彤; and the attractive packaging down south in Fujian province – all win the day. Though it could be 10-15 minutes shorter, and the final half-hour slows down as the various plot elements are worked out, Yao’s film still exerts an emotional pull that’s entirely due to the well-graded performances to that point.

Based on the popular 2012 novel by Hunan-born writer Liu Tong 刘同, 36 – who also takes a producer and co-writing credit on the film – Yesterday centres on a serious high-school swot whose values are challenged when she gets to know a loose-cannon classmate. It’s a classic odd-couple pairing, whose hook comes in the first scene: when she’s almost caught cheating in an exam, he steps in and takes the blame, whether for romantic reasons or just to challenge the system. For payback, he asks her to do all his homework, and the excuse for them to meet regularly is set up. After they eventually stop sparring, the inevitable happens, and the girl begins to realise that academic success at any price (basically to please her ambitious mother) may not be everything.

There are the usual song montages, the usual summery photography, and no plot reversals of the “waah!” variety. But the song montages (apart from one misguidedly set to Hey Jude) are apposite and not intrusive; the play with southern light by d.p. Zhao Wencao 赵文操, 33, who worked for Yao on Back in Time, adds to the freshness of the setting, with locations in Jimei (a suburb of Xiamen) and nearby Zhangping doubling for the fictional Beixi municipality 北溪市; and the biggest twist, in which the girl discovers something about her parents, neatly plays into her later decision to confront her mother’s bullying. Again, nothing revolutionary within the high-school/coming-of-age genre, but skilfully done, gently nudged along by a light, attentive score from Hong Kong’s Li Yunwen 黎允文 (Henry Lai), and well played by the young cast.

Twenty-two-year-old Bai, who played the studious, arty type in Back in Time that was taken by Wei Chen 魏晨 in the film version (Fleet of Time 匆匆那年, 2014), is top-billed in Yesterday and manages to blend an anti-establishment attitude with some charm without overdoing either. But the centre of the movie is second-billed Guo, 23, well cast in her first big-screen role as the goody two-shoes swot whose values are challenged by the free-thinking kid across the tracks. (She will be seen later this year in the crime drama Blood of Youth 少年, directed by Yang Shupeng 杨树鹏.) With looks that are not too perfect and even contain a hint of condescension, Guo modulates her performance in a way that her character is likeable and understandable. Her relationships with her bratty younger brother, domineering mother (Liu Mintao 刘敏涛, good), sympathetic father and best friend are as important as that with Bai’s loose cannon, and result in a very rounded character.

Yao must take equal credit for the easy chemistry between the actors, and it’s worth noting that the film manages to end unconventionally without disappointing the audience for the time it’s spent invested in the leads. Yesterday is more about “personal liberation” than simple high-school romance, but it wears such pretentious themes lightly. Local box office was a very solid RMB180 million, especially for a genre item with no big names. Popular Taiwan actor-director Su Youpeng 苏有朋 [Alec Su] and Mainland actor Lin Gengxin 林更新 (My Old Classmate 同桌的妳, 2014) cameo as a teacher and as an older version of the lead girl’s brother.

The film has no connection with Yesterday Once More 龙凤斗 (2004), directed by Du Qifeng 杜琪峰 [Johnnie To] and starring Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau] and Zheng Xiuwen 郑秀文 [Sammi Cheng].

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Shannan Enlight Pictures (CN), Khorgos Youth Enlight Pictures (CN). Produced by Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Shannan Enlight Pictures (CN), Khorgos Youth Enlight Pictures (CN).

Script: Tian Bo, Zhong Ning, Liu Tong, Yao Tingting. Novel: Liu Tong. Photography: Zhou Wencao. Editing: Zhang Weili. Music: Li Yunwen [Henry Lai]. Art direction: Zhao Xuehao. Styling: Wei Xiangrong. Sound: Lin Siyu. Action: Shu Jian. Visual effects: He Xuesong. Executive direction: Zhang Chaoli.

Cast: Bai Jingting (Gao Xiang), Guo Shutong (Lin Tianjiao), Li Hongyi (Huang Tao), Wang Herun (Li Tiantian), Ding Guansen (Ou Xiaoyang, Li Tiantian’s boyfriend), Zhao Wenlong (Li Tao, friend of Huang Tao), Hu Xiansu (Lin Zi’ao, Lin Tianjiao’s younger brother), Su Xin (Shitou, repair-shop friend of Gao Xiang), Wang Deshun (Gao Xiang’s grandfather), Chang Haibo (Hao, older teacher), Tao Hui (motorcycle girl), Liu Mintao (Zhang Lan, Lin Tianjiao’s mother), Cheng Taishen (Lin Tianjiao’s father), Liu Yuntian (flower-stall owner), Su Youpeng [Alec Su] (Qian, teacher), Liu Yan (underwear-shop owner), Li Chengyuan (Sun, teacher), Huang Sisi (deputy school head), Tian Yu (Shen, education official), Wang Jiahui (Li Meiyan), Guo Jinglin (Gao Xiang’s father), Chai Wei (girl at Moon Rock Exhibition), Lin Muran (young Gao Xiang), Wu Zijing (young Lin Tianjiao), Lin Gengxin (older Lin Zi’ao).

Release: China, 22 Apr 2016.