Paris Holiday

巴黎假期

China/Hong Kong, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 112 mins.

Director: Ruan Shisheng 阮世生 [James Yuen].

Rating: 6/10.

Handsome but mechanical rom-com lacks chemistry between its leads and any emotional depth.

STORY

Paris, the present day. Investment banker Lin Junjie (Gu Tianle) throws up his life in Hong Kong and flies to Paris to manage the wine business of a client, Zhou Zhaoguang (Anthony Chan). Arriving at a rental flat by the flower market in Place de la Madeleine, he’s told by Zhou’s agent, Liu Cong (Fang Zhongxin), that he will have to share the place with the previous tenant, Ding Xiaomin (Guo Caijie), who hasn’t moved out yet as she’s fallen to pieces since being ditched by her fiance, Xu Hui (Xu Zhengxi), an artist with whom she came to Paris five years ago. Liu Cong asks Lin Junjie to be understanding of the situation; he adds that, as Ding Xiaomin has gone off men, he’s told her that Lin Junjie is a homosexual. Lin Junjie is a neatness freak; Ding Xiaomin is untidy, never washes, and is a depressive drunk. After three days, Lin Junjie tells Liu Cong he’s moving to a hotel; only after hearing Ding Xiaomin’s story, and how she was abandoned by the love of her life, does he agree to stay on. He cooks and cleans for her, and tries to raise her spirits in various ways. Meanwhile, he has to deal with Zhou Zhaoguang’s daughter, Zhou Xiaoli (Wen Yongshan), who’s lived in France for 15 years and hates her father for the way he treated her mother. Lin Junjie and Ding Xiaomin get to know Liu Cong’s female friend, Amy (Hu Jiong), a florist in the square, and the four go out together one weekend to a dance class. Then, just when Ding Xiaomin seems to be getting over her trauma, she spots Xu Hui in the street with a woman. Soon afterwards, Zhao Yuqing (Liu Ziyan), a figure from Lin Junjie’s past, also turns up in Paris.

REVIEW

All the required elements are in place – a glamorous foreign location, two name actors doing their usual shtick, rich, glossy photography, a warm, romantic score – but Paris Holiday 巴黎假期 remains resolutely grounded, a professional but entirely mechanical exercise in romantic comedy. Despite being 15 minutes too long, it’s always watchable, and is about on the level of My Sassy Hubby 我老婆唔够秤2  我老公唔生性 (2012), the last decent film by Hong Kong’s Ruan Shisheng 阮世生 [James Yuen]. But that’s not saying much for a writer-director who made some of Hong Kong’s best relationship movies in the late 1990s (e.g. Your Place or Mine! 每天爱您8小时, 1998), plus the offbeat light comedy Crazy n’ the City 神经侠侣 (2005) a decade ago.

Hong Kong’s Gu Tianle 古天乐 [Louis Koo] – currently averaging about seven films a year – clocks in here at his most perma-tanned wooden as some kind of executive who moves to Paris for a fresh start and finds himself sharing a flat with a wacko Taiwan artist (squeaky actress-singer Guo Caijie 郭采洁 [Amber Kuo]) who’s gone to pieces since being ditched by her Beijing boyfriend. Even worse, he has to pretend to be gay, as the girl is a bit off men at the moment. It’s a classic, odd-couple set-up, with the resolution clear from reel one. To give Ruan and his co-writers some credit, the resolution isn’t quite the expected one and the script doesn’t pivot on the exec pretending to be gay. Instead, it revolves more around “friendship” and seeing the sites, with the first 70 minutes spent in situational comedy and most of the backstories and relationships resolved in the final half hour.

That structure makes the film very back-loaded, with the writers also stringing things out way beyond their emotional worth. If the audience was more invested in the characters, the script’s lopsidedness wouldn’t be such a problem, but it still doesn’t help the movie. For example, there’s no adequate reason given at the start why the exec decides to remain in the flat rather than move to a hotel, which at the time looks like a pure rom-com device; only near the end of the film is the viewer told why. But then Paris Holiday is nowhere on a par with Ruan’s earlier work: it’s the kind of film you can draw up shopping lists while watching; and as a director Ruan seems just as keen to squeeze in another shot of the Eiffel Tower as he is to engage the audience in his characters. (Reportedly, he holidayed in Paris for two months, researching atmosphere and locations.)

Gu and Guo both hit their marks in a professional way but have no natural chemistry at all. (In the film’s Hong Kong version, they don’t even connect on a linguistic level, with him speaking Cantonese and her Mandarin throughout.) Compare Guo’s excellent chemistry with co-star Zheng Kai 郑恺 in Ex-Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back 前任2  备胎反击战 (2015), which she made subsequently, and Gu’s failure to connect with his co-star is even more obvious. Hong Kong veteran Fang Zhongxin 方中信 [Alex Fong Chung-sun] is reliable as always in the “best male friend” role, and Mainland Yi minority actress Hu Jing 胡静 okay as his florist friend; but the film spins on its two leads and Paris as a tourist destination, with Gu and Guo ticking off the sights and doing everything except wear berets and onions round their necks.

Tip-top technical work, especially the saturated visuals by d.p. Xie Zhongdao 谢忠道 [Kenny Tse] and ultra-smooth score by veteran Luo Jian 罗坚 [Lincoln Lo], keep the train running smoothly on its tracks. According to the end credits, the script is based on the story A Friendly Lover 日久生情 by Ruan and Hong Kong’s Huang Haoran 黄浩然 and Ou Yuxian 区玉娴. Throughout, there’s blatant product placement for a soft drink and a brand of crisps that Gu endorses.

CREDITS

Presented by Yingming Culture Communication (CN), Universe Entertainment (HK), Heyi Pictures (CN), Beijing Monster Pictures (CN), Sun Entertainment Culture (HK), Poly Film Investment (CN), Zhejiang Viewguide Film (CN), Alpha Pictures (HK), Universe Matrix Century Films Distribution (Beijing) (CN). Produced by Yingming Culture Communication (CN), Universe Entertainment (HK), Heyi Pictures (CN), Beijing Monster Pictures (CN), Sun Entertainment Culture (HK), Poly Film Investment (CN), Zhejiang Viewguide Film (CN), Alpha Pictures (HK), Universe Matrix Century Films Distribution (Beijing) (CN).

Script: Ruan Shisheng [James Yuen], Luo Yaohui [Andy Lo], Wang Meixue. Story: Ruan Shisheng [James Yuen], Huang Haoran, Ou Yuxian. Photography: Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]. Editing: Liang Guorong [Jacky Leung]. Music: Luo Jian [Lincoln Lo]. Art direction: Feng Jihui. Costumes: Deng Cuiyi. Sound: Tan Derong, Nie Jirong. Visual effects: Zheng Wenzheng (Creasun Digital International).

Cast: Gu Tianle [Louis Koo] (Lin Junjie/Clarence), Guo Caijie [Amber Kuo] (Ding Xiaomin), Xu Zhengxi (Xu Hui), Liu Ziyan (Zhao Yuqing/Candy), Fang Zhongxin [Alex Fong Chung-sun] (Liu Cong/Michael), Hu Jing (Amy, florist), Wen Yongshan [Janice Man] (Zhou Xiaoli/Nicole), Anthony Chan (Zhou Zhaoguang, Zhou Xiaoli’s father), Lei Yuyang (investment bank boss), Wei Shiya (estate agent), Wu Jialong [Carl Ng] (Zhao Yuqing’s fiancee), Chen Jiale (Kelvin, rich kid), Chen Kai’en (Zhou’s driver), Henri Darasse (taxi driver), Jean-Claude Matthey (Sean, florist’s old customer), Sylvie Aïoun (Melanie, Italian neighbour opposite), Isabelle de R. (Lin Junjie’s secretary), Nadia Glogowski (art professor), Bernard Lorain (museum head), Pascale Loridan (wedding shop staff), Ruan Shisheng [James Yuen] (Chinese restaurant manager).

Release: China, 31 Jul 2015; Hong Kong, 23 Jul 2015.