I Love You
我要和你在一起
China, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 92 mins.
Directors: Zeng Jinwei 曾晋为, Zhao Zuxiang 赵祖祥.
Rating: 7/10.
With two strong leads, this offbeat rom-com is a clever riff on courting procedures that doesn’t run out of puff.
STORY
Somewhere in East China. Yang Side (Li Tian’en), a second-year pupil at Zhixin Senior High, mysteriously drowns in a shallow river. Gossip among the students blames his death on new transfer student He Meizhen (Li Meng), 18, who arrived with a reputation for bringing misfortune on those who try to get close to her. At her previous school she was nicknamed The Witch. At Zhixin Senior High she’s a loner whom the other students shun – apart from geeky, bespectacled Li Xiaodong (Yin Fang), also 18, who is fascinated by her and makes her the subject of a statistical essay. But when another student, Lin Zhengquan (Dai Zice), dies after harassing her for a date, even Li Xiaodong starts to think witches may exist, and He Meizhen herself certainly believes she brings misfortune onto other people. After Li Xiaodong secretly delivers a note to the house where she’s staying, he’s knocked down by a car that night and suffers minor injuries. When he gets back to school, he finds He Meizhen has been driven out of town by locals. Seven years later, Li Xiaodong has a job in the big city. His mother (Wu Yufang), who is in hospital, tells him she took pity on He Meizhen when she was driven out of town and bought the house she was staying in off of her. One evening on the metro Li Xiaodong spots He Meizhen and follows her home; she’s still a recluse, by choice to protect others, and has all her food delivered to her flat. Li Xiaodong resigns his job, takes a flat opposite hers, and reinvestigates all the cases of male schoolmates who were injured or died because of trying to get to know her. He works out they all had school desks within 10 metres of hers; but Li Xiaodong also did, so why was he injured only when he went to her home? By posing as a food delivery boy, he eventually works out other caveats: not being with her more than 10 minutes at a time, not speaking more than 10 sentences at a time, and so on. After by chance doing a big favour for He Meizhen’s old landlady (He Shuxia), the latter invites them both out to lunch, hoping to match them up; but Li Xiaodong spends the whole time trying not to break any of the rules he’s established for his own safety. Later, He Meizhen phones to check if he’s all right, and he ends up inviting himself round to her flat for a drink. They gradually establish a warm and happy relationship, until one day she suddenly realises who he is.
REVIEW
A high-school-and-after rom-com with a clever idea at its centre, I Love You 我要和你在一起 is sustained by a dry sense of humour and two strong lead performances, plus a screenplay that doesn’t run out of puff and has a simplicity that makes its third act quite moving. Creatively produced by Chen Zhengdao 陈正道 [Leste Chen], a Taiwan-born filmmaker whose up-and-down career has been substantially in the Mainland (Love on Credit 幸福额度, 2011; Miss Granny 重返20岁, 2015), it marks a strong feature debut by writer-directors Zeng Jinwei 曾晋为, who previously co-directed the short The Bag’s Secret 包里的秘密 (2015) with Chen, and Zhao Zuxiang 赵祖祥, who made the short A Test 考试 (2016). Both have backgrounds in cinematography. Alas, I Love You made almost zero impression on the Mainland box office this autumn (RMB5.3 million) despite its several qualities.
The movie was actually shot five years ago, starting in Aug 2017, in Daishan, Shanghai, Ningbo and Zhoushan, under the title 魔女的童话 (literally, “The Witch’s Fairy Tale”, referring to the nickname of the female lead). Freely adapted from the 2013 manga The Witch 마녀 by South Korean online cartoonist Gang Do-yeong 강도영 | 康道永 (aka Gang Pul 강풀 | 姜草 or Kang Full), it was launched as the second “Chinese and South Korean twin film” (i.e. the same project but made by separate crews) following the success of the two Miss Granny movies (2014 and 2015). Four of Gang’s mangas had been made into films in South Korea, including horror APT 아파트 (2006) plus Hello, Schoolgirl 순정만화 (2008) and The Neighbours 이웃사람 (2012), but for whatever reason – maybe China’s ban on Korean cultural imports at the time – nothing more was heard of the movie until it reappeared this autumn under a new, very generic Chinese title (literally, “I Want to Be with You”). Five years ago, the two leads were just breaking through as film actors; when it was released they were already established (though not major) names.
The script by Zeng and Zhao, plus Chen’s frequent writer Ren Peng 任鹏, has a simple but clever idea at its heart: a mysterious transfer student comes with a reputation for bringing misfortune to those around her and excites the interest of a geeky male student; when he sees her by chance seven years later, he secretly sets out to crack the code of how he can befriend her without suffering any harmful effects. It’s basically a comic riff on courting procedures: what lines can or cannot be crossed, how far once can go, and so on. In I Love You the whole process is reduced to a pseudo-scientific study by the man – no more than 10 minutes in her company, no more than 10 sentences at a time, etc. – while the woman is still unaware of who he is.
The script skirts the idea of whether she actually has any witch-like qualities or whether the accidents that befall her male admirers are all just coincidences. The important thing is that she herself believes she has, and for that reason chooses to live as a loner (“I don’t even have the right to like someone”); he kind of believes she has but is willing to take a chance in getting to know her. Much of the humour springs from the latter, especially scenes where he is always timing himself in her company. The resolution to the whole quandary – and the film’s central theme – is hardly a surprise but it’s also quietly moving as it adheres to human behaviour.
Throughout, the screenplay is admirably lean, with no extraneous detail or characters and wholly centred on the two leads. Though the whole thing has a slight fantasy edge, the use of VFX is also very limited. Always an interesting actress, Li Meng 李梦 (Young Love Lost 少年巴比伦, 2015; Only the Wind Knows 那一场呼啸而过的青春, 2017; Dead Pigs 海上浮城, 2018; Vortex 铤而走险, 2019), 26 at the time, invests a largely introspective role with genuine pathos and growing warmth, while onetime dancer Yin Fang 尹昉, then 32, brings considerable charm and much energy to the geek-turned-suitor, in an outgoing lead performance that’s unlike his usual supporting roles (Blue Sky Bones 蓝色骨头, 2013; Operation Red Sea 红海行动, 2018; Better Days 少年的你, 2019). The pair also show an unforced chemistry that pays dividends in the moving third act.
A pleasant score mirrors the film in all its changing moods, while the handsome widescreen photography by Gao Hu 高虎 (Jianbing Man 煎饼侠, 2015; City of Rock 缝纫机乐队, 2017; Too Cool to Kill 这个杀手不太冷静, 2022) is warm without being over-saturated.
CREDITS
Presented by Huace Pictures (Tianjin) (CN), Huace Union Pictures (Tianjin) (CN), Beijing Cultural Centre Fund (CN), Lian Ray (Shanghai) Pictures (CN). Produced by Huace Union Pictures (Tianjin) (CN).
Script: Ren Peng, Zeng Jinwei, Zhao Zuxiang. Original story: Gang Pul. Photography: Gao Hu. Editing: Li Nanyi. Music: Benjamin Ko (Age of Mars). Art direction: Chen Siqin, Xu Duo. Styling: Zhao Jing. Sound: Xu Duo, Zhao Nan, Yang Jiang. Action: Yao Xingxing. Visual effects: Gim Seong-hwan. Animation: Zhu Yuchen.
Cast: Yin Fang (Li Xiaodong), Li Meng (He Meizhen), Li Shen (Xu Qiang), He Shuxia (He Meizhen’s landlady), Wu Yufang (Li Xiaodong’s mother), Qu Bo (Wang Bin), Chang Haibo (teacher), Shao Shengjie (Lin Zhengquan’s father), Huai Yuan (Uncle Liu), Dai Zice (Lin Zhengquan), Li Tian’en (Yang Side), Yu Yanchen (Yang Side’s father), Wang Yaqin (Yang Side’s mother), Yang Junyu (university tutor), Hao Xuankai (Wang Yi).
Release: China, 16 Sep 2022.