Follow Follow
乐队
China, 2011, colour, 16:9, 92 mins.
Director: Peng Lei 彭磊.
Rating: 5/10.
An intriguing look at Beijing’s rock scene that keeps slipping out of focus.
STORY
Beijing, the present day, winter. In her final year at high school, Yiwen (Zhao Yiwen), who has a mini-shrine to Kurt Cobain in her room, spends her free time hanging out with her best friend (Jiang Laonianer) and going to rock concerts. She says she’s bored and surrounded by idiots, and only Kurt Cobain’s music can save the world. One night, a flying saucer lands Kurt Cobain’s ghost (Antoine Roset) in her room, and very slowly the girl’s life starts to change. She fancies a bass guitarist (Xiao P) but it’s her friend who ends up with him. She attends guitar school but still can’t play the instrument she already has. Finally, with the help of her friend, she records a song of her own and sings it with the band in which the bass guitarist plays. She takes a liking to the lead guitarist/composer, Yang Yang (Nakano Akira), and the group gets an offer from a recording company. But then things don’t go as planned.
REVIEW
In the sprawling hour-and-a-half of Follow Follow 乐队 lies a potentially sharp look at Beijing’s rock scene, and a potentially touching story of a high-school graduate who falls for its anti-glamour. With trimming of the copious music sequences and dead-air long takes, plus more emphasis on the quirky humour, this second feature by filmmaker-animator-punk rock musician Peng Lei 彭磊 (after his lesbian-love The Panda Candy 熊猫奶糖, 2009) could have been an offbeat look at the posey side of the capital’s alternative music scene. As it is, it’s an intriguing little movie that keeps slipping out of focus, and is largely memorable for a quietly spacey performance by 22-year-old newcomer Zhao Yiwen 趙怡文 and its parade of Beijing cultural figures.
Just when the viewer thinks the film is going to be another grungy study of bored Beijing youth, Peng pulls his first surprise 10 minutes in, as Zhao’s listless character is visited by a flying saucer that deposits her hero Kurt Cobain’s ghost in her bedroom. That, and other scenes with wannabe rock stars (especially one in which a bass-guitar collector proudly parades his ersatz collection), are played with a nice straight-faced humour; but the comedy is come-and-go, hit-and-miss, when it could easily be sharper.
Peng showed a gift for satire in his 50-minute cultural spoof Equal Love 野人也有爱 (2008). And as a rock musician himself – lead singer/guitarist of New Pants 新裤子 – he knows the world of which he writes in Follow Follow. Unfortunately, it’s just too unfocused: late on, Peng throws in the intriguing idea that Chinese rock is simply a vacuous copy of a western artifact that has no roots in Chinese culture. In interviews, he’s stated that even he himself has had this misgiving – but in the film, it’s hardly developed beyond a mention.
Zhao’s slightly geeky looks and moony eyes are a good fit for her character, and Peng has surrounded her with real-life personalities who bring a ring of truth to the movie, if not actual performances. These include vintage-clothing designer Jiang Laonianer 江老蔫兒 (aka Jiang Yuchen 江雨晨) as her lynx-eyed best pal and Japanese musician Nakano Akira 中野阳 (known as Yangyang 阳阳 in China) as her whacked-out love object. People like rock-grrrl Wang Yue 王悦 and writer-artist Jian Cui 健崔 pop up in witty cameos.
Wintry photography of the capital by Beijing-based Italian d.p. Andrea Cavazzuti, who shot Perpetual Motion 无穷动 (2005) by Ning Ying 宁瀛, is spot-on in its naturalism. Peng’s animation roots show up in a brief coda. The film’s original title means simply “The Band”.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Paihua Cultural Development (CN). Produced by 22Film (CN).
Script: Peng Lei. Photography: Andrea Cavazzuti. Editing: Peng Lei. Music: Peng Lei. Songs: Peng Lei, Hua Lun, Beijing Skinhead. Sound: Meng Jinhui, Yamada Naho, Chen Dong. Visual effects: Li Gang (Shockunit Entertainment).
Cast: Zhao Yiwen (Yiwen/Even), Nakano Akira (Yangyang), Antoine Roset (Kurt Cobain’s ghost), Jiang Laonianer [Jiang Yuchen] (Yiwen’s best friend), Xiao P (grunge guitarist), Xiaowu (drummer), Ding Taisheng (recording-company rep), Leo (Vashvalla, Yang Yang’s Romanian girlfriend), Jian Cui (style journalist), Wang Yue (herself), Pang Kuan (vintage-shop owner), Shi Zhe (Daoist priest), Yuan Yuan (Xiaoyuan, Yangyang’s male friend), Chen Dong (recording engineer).
Premiere: The Creators Project: Beijing 2011, 18 Sep 2011.
Release: China, 14 Jul 2012.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 3 Sep 2012.)