Pandora’s Sword
潘多拉的宝剑
China, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 96 mins.
Director: Li Kelong 李克龙.
Rating: 5/10.
A modest but lightly amusing comedy centred on the whole process of film-making.
STORY
Zhengzhou city, Henan province, central China, the present day. Businessman Hua Zhiguo (Zheng Haonan) decides to invest in a film, as cover for an illegal antiques deal with Taiwan and to keep wannabe actress Allie (Chen Yali), whom he’s fallen for, from returning to Hong Kong following her failure to get any roles after three years. He hires ambitious young film-maker Gao Yang (Ou Di), who’s been getting by shooting wedding videos, and gives him three conditions: the film must be a historical drama, have Allie in the leading female role, and feature an antique sword he owns. Gao Yang comes up with the idea of Yu Ji 虞姬, a costume movie centred on warlord Chu Bawang, aka Xiang Yu, his favourite concubine Yu Miaoyi, and his enemy Liu Bang. He hires his wedding-video colleagues as his technical staff and the company’s boss, Da Gang (Deng Zifei), to play Chu Bawang. Hua Zhiguo’s assistant, Wu Youzhi (Zhang Weixun), who has the job of production manager, volunteers to play Liu Bang. Production starts on a tiny budget, driven only by Gao Yang’s ambition to direct his first film. The main problem, however, is that neither of the two leads can act. Concerned about rising costs, and a looming deadline with his Taiwan client, Hua Zhiguo hires a veteran Hong Kong professional, Bi (Lian Jin), to advise. He suggests increasing the budget and brings in a team of South Koreans. But Hua Zhiguo then discovers Bi is cheating him and, worse, Allie has fallen for Gao Yang.
REVIEW
A wannabe actress and a wannabe director find themselves teamed up on a vanity production by a dodgy businessman in Pandora’s Sword 潘多拉的宝剑, a lightly amusing comedy on the whole process of film-making that’s a likeable time-waster. It’s a relatively early work by prolific, Shandong-born writer-director-actor Li Kelong 李克龙, now almost 40, who’s made over a dozen full-scale theatrical films – plus some 20 or so others – in every conceivable genre since his debut, the comedy Lao Wu’s Oscar 老五的奥斯卡 (2009). Pandora is one of the few not to star his favourite actress, Hunan-born Liao Weiwei 廖蔚蔚, but gets by without her perky comic presence as it has fun – on a budget – with a whole business that Li obviously knows well.
It’s a typical movie by journeyman Li – professional at all levels, consistently inventive, but without much heft in any one department. The performance that anchors the film is that by Hong Kong veteran Zheng Haonan 郑浩南 – King of the Category IIIs, sometime stuntman, and onetime spouse of Japanese action babe Oshima Yukari 大岛由加利 – who brings a lifetime of playing supporting roles to that of the dodgy businessman who wants to get his girlfriend into the movies. Acting creditably in Mandarin, and with a nice feel for laidback comedy, he dominates the screen whenever he’s on. As the wannabe director, Taiwan actor-singer Ou Di 欧弟 is very low-key, both in delivery and charm, and is consistently eclipsed by his big-eyed co-star, Hong Kong’s Chen Yali 陈雅丽, as a nice girl but failed actress. It’s a likeable first leading role by Chen, then 24, that so far hasn’t led to similar big-screen parts.
Supporting roles are all colourfully etched in what is effectively an ensemble comedy, and photography by the reliable Cheng Ma Zhiyuan 程马志远 is okay but without any special gloss. Li doesn’t let the script’s thin premise grow grass under its feet, keeping things moving with trim editing, bits of multiscreen and a poppy score. Only his repeated habit of using fade-outs makes the film seem more episodic than it actually is.
Box office was microscopic. The film was shot in and around Zhengzhou city, capital of Henan province. It is also known, on publicity material but not on the print, as The Sword of Love.
CREDITS
Presented by Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Beijing Fenghua Zaixian Culture Communication (CN), Henan Fenghua Zaixian TV Planning (CN), Henan Sheng Xin’gang Industrial (CN).
Script: Li Kelong, Wang Yutao, Zou Lisha. Photography: Cheng Ma Zhiyuan. Editing: Chen Yan. Music: Tian Hua. Art direction: Zhang Nan. Costumes: Yan Zi. Visual effects: Ma Qiao.
Cast: Ou Di (Gao Yang), Chen Yali (Allie), Zheng Haonan (Hua Zhiguo), Lian Jin (Bi), Zhang Weixun (Wu Youzhi), Deng Zifei (Da Gang), Yang Jianing (Ferrari, make-up artist), A Li (Li, costume designer), Pu Xizhi (Xiaoming, cameraman), Wei Hang (Fang Zheng, props master), Xiaowu (bridegroom), Wang Xuefei (bride), Cui Xiao (Korean executive director), Tian Hua (Korean props master), San Qiang (Korean gaffer), Lv Junzhe (Korean cameraman), Da Heng (Korean costume designer), Zhu Lingqing (Korean make-up artist), Tony (black man), Fan Jun (cook), Guo Chao (property owner), Li Jixi (dying patient), Zhang Le (nurse), Jie Er (big-breasted woman), Li Kelong (director at auditions), Xiaobai (assistant director at auditions), Yuan Jie (producer at auditions).
Release: China, 21 Jun 2012.