The Double Life

A面B面

China, 2010, colour, 1.85:1, 103 mins.

Director: Ning Ying 宁瀛.

Rating: 6/10.

Madcap comedy on modern-day “lunacy” marks a partial return to form by director Ning Ying.

STORY

Hangzhou, China, the present day. Chen Congming (Wang Luoyong), an associate professor at a medical college who is popular with his students, alarms his superiors with his theory that everyone has the potential to go crazy, and that the dividing line between sanity and insanity is paper-thin. The college principal has Chen Congming committed to a mental asylum. There he gets to know an orderly, Liang Haichao (Yuan Wenkang), who was recently divorced by his childhood sweetheart Liu Yue (Zhang Jingchu), a money-obsessed model now suffering from chronic depression. Liu Yue is now engaged to wealthy Cantonese businessman Xiao Chunlei (Chen Xiaodong), who’s made his fortune from health/sex tonics. But when Xiao Chunlei’s six-year-old daughter by his ex-wife Shao Meili (Chu Chu) has to go into hospital for an emergency kidney operation which Xiao Chunlei pays for, Liu Yue becomes further depressed, convinced that he’s looking to reconcile with Shao Meili. Liu Yue has a very public nervous breakdown. Meanwhile, Liang Haichao decides Liu Yue needs “rescuing” from Xiao Chunlei, and persuades her to get Xiao Chunlei committed to the mental asylum by feeding him her anti-depressant pills. In the asylum Chen Congming meets Xiao Chunlei, whom he realises has been framed, and the two decide to break out together.

REVIEW

After making her name internationally during the 1990s with her so-called Beijing Trilogy (For Fun 找乐, 1992; On the Beat 民警故事, 1995; I Love Beijing 夏日暖洋洋, 2000), Ning Ying 宁瀛 has slipped off the map during the past decade, with only a documentary (Railroad of Hope 希望之旅, 2001) and the disappointing female-talk marathon (Perpetual Motion 无穷动, 2005). Though The Double Life A面B面 is billed locally as her first “commercial” film – largely because the project was not initiated by her, but brought to her by writer/producer Chen Jinhai 陈金海 – the movie is hardly that, compared with the current slick standards of China’s commercial film sector. With a largely low/mid-budget look, and no real star names (apart from, arguably, actress Zhang Jingchu 张静初), the film’s theme of establishment lunacy, as well as its slightly exaggerated style, recalls the social satires of the 1980s by Huang Jianxin 黄建新 (The Black Cannon Incident 黑炮事件, 1985; Dislocation 错位, 1986), and even the later Party A, Party B 甲方乙方 (1997) by Feng Xiaogang 冯小刚. (The film’s Chinese title, meaning “Side A, Side B”, even parallels that of Feng’s movie.)

However, between its more broader comic moments, the film does bring back memories of the low-key social irony that Ning pioneered during the 1990s. Though the script is basically another runaway comedy about the way in which China is going “crazy” at the moment, Ning has not gone for a fast-paced shooting or editing style: some scenes use speeded-up motion, and others offbeat framing angles, but in general she uses long takes in medium shot in which the actors and the dialogue are allowed their space, e.g. the witty “madness” quiz by the nurse (Kong Wei 孔维) to the two main protagonists, and several conversations in the asylum between the professor (Wang Luoyong 王洛勇) and orderly (Yuan Wenkang 袁文康).

The deeper messages of the film – that market-oriented institutions (like the asylum) have the potential to abuse their powers, that money does not breed happiness, and that “normal” people can sometimes do crazier things than “crazy” people – is a bit blunted by a tacked-on happy ending set six months later. And the film’s tonal swings between knockabout comedy and subtler stuff won’t work so well outside Asia. However, on a performance level the movie is well cast, with lead actor Wang working well with both Yuan and Hong Kong’s Chen Xiaodong 陈晓东 (as a Cantonese tonic magnate) and Zhang fine as the gold-digging model who’s given up on happiness. Notorious Mainland blog diva Sister Furong 芙蓉姐姐 [pen name of Shi Hengxia 史恒侠] mugs entertainingly as the magnate’s dotty shop assistant.

CREDITS

Presented by Zhejiang Golden Globe Pictures (CN). Produced by Zhejiang Golden Globe Pictures (CN).

Script: Chen Jinhai. Photography: Wu Di. Editing: Ning Ying, Jia Cuiping. Music: Wu Liqun. Art direction: Wang Zhigang. Costumes: Gao Haoning. Sound: Fu Kang, Zhao Lei.

Cast: Zhang Jingchu (Liu Yue), Wang Luoyong (Chen Congming, professor), Chen Xiaodong (Xiao Chunlei), Deng Jiajia (Dongfang Ying, Chen Congming’s graduate student), Kong Wei (Lan, nurse), Yuan Wenkang (Liang Haichao), Ren Quan (Wang Dajia), Sister Furong (Taohua, Xiao Chunlei’s assistant), Tang Ying (Haiyan, nurse), Chu Liaosheng (Xu, doctor), Chu Chu (Shao Meili, Xiao Chunlei’s ex-wife), Su Yuhong (Xiao Yu, Xiao Chunlei’s daughter), Kong Guoxing (Zhao Shouren, asylum head), Liu Tianxi (Da Sha), Xia Xiaoming (Huang Xiaomao), Huang Ting (Gu Mi), Huang Chao (Record), Shi Lina (nurse), Li Yishan (tramp), Yang Jian (college principal), Lu Haitao (college vice-principal), Wang Bin (Sun), Ma Hangfei (chief inspector), Wang Ziyang (photographer), Han Jiqing (supervisor), Tang Tang (customer), Li Mingfei (reporter), Xu Ziyuan (police chief), Guo Jing (taxi driver).

Release: China, 30 Apr 2010.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 20 Jun 2010.)