Showtime
用心跳
China, 2010, colour, 1.85, 95 mins.
Director: Guan Jinpeng 关锦鹏 [Stanley Kwan].
Rating: 2/10.
Incoherent, wannabe musical drama centred on Shanghai dance/theatre students fumbles the ball at every level.
STORY
Shanghai, 2009. After four years of studying, a group of dance students are wished well by their teacher (Huang Lei) as they start rehearsals for their graduation performance. Meanwhile, five members of a 1936 Shanghai theatre troupe, lead by Liu (Hu Jun), a master, are transported into the present to broaden their horizons. They start by forming a home cleaning service, Cleaning Babes, but soon get bored with both that and modern Shanghai. They’re joined by one of the dance students, Jixiang, and are told by the witch-like Natasha (Zhao Yazhi) that, if each of them can attract two apprentices and all 18 people then perform together, the “time spell” under which they’re trapped in 2009 will be broken by the combined vibrations of their group performance. They descend on the academy to find apprentices, joining in (and bringing their own different skills to) the graduation performance.
REVIEW
The idea behind Showtime 用心跳 – melding new and old Shanghai through two groups of performance students from 2009 and 1936 – is potentially interesting, but its execution by Hong Kong scriptwriter Wei Shao’en 魏绍恩 [Jimmy Ngai] and director Guan Jinpeng 关锦鹏 [Stanley Kwan] is clumsy, pretentious and poorly dialogued, with little to say apart from artistic platitudes and with none of the release that could have come from well-staged song-and-dance numbers. The Qingdao-set Kung Fu Hip-Hop 2 精武门2 (2010), directed by Liu Baoxian 刘宝贤 [Bowie Lau], had more energy and cultural commentary than Guan’s movie, which too often plays like a vamp-till-ready lead-up to big numbers which either never come or are cut off halfway.
The dramatic decline as a director by Guan (who needs a strong script to work from) can be directly traced to his partnership with Wei since Hold You Tight 愈快乐愈堕落 (1997). Showtime, Guan’s first feature since Everlasting Regret 长恨歌 (2005), is somewhere down there with his and Wei’s all-time train wreck, The Island Tales 有时跳舞 (2000), and has only the youthful energy of some of the (real-life) students from Shanghai Theatre Academy 上海戏剧学院 and Shanghai Conservatory of Music 上海音乐学院 to recommend it. Clunky editing by Hong Kong’s Zhang Shuping 张叔平 [William Chang] and lacklustre photography by Australia’s Christopher Doyle 杜可风 are well below par for these two consummate professionals, and a series of meaningless cameos by people like Hong Kong-based actress Liu Jialing 刘嘉玲 [Carina Lau], Mainland comedian Fan Wei 范伟, Doyle himself and Hong Kong veteran Liang Jiahui 梁家辉 [Tony Leung Ka-fai] simply add to the general wreckage. The only actors to emerge with some dignity are Mainlanders Hu Jun 胡军 as the 1936 drama troupe master and TV drama star Huang Lei 黄磊 in a couple of brief scenes as the modern students’ teacher.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Starlight Culture Media (CN), Shanghai Film Group (CN), 3 Will Kingdom (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution Company (CN).
Script: Wei Shao’en [Jimmy Ngai]. Photography: Christopher Doyle. Editing: Zhang Shuping [William Chang]. Music: Yu Yiyao. Art direction: Lan Bin, Zhang Shuping [William Chang]. Costume design: Lv Fengshan. Sound: Wang Xueyi, Lai Qizhen. Choreography: Li Zhongzhi [Nicky Li].
Cast: Jiang Yi, Gao Tingting, Cai Pengfei, Xu Jiajing, Wang Huan, Lang Ling, Li Manman, Sun Yiqiu, Si Wen, Tu Ran, Wang Nan (performers), Huang Lei (dance teacher), Wen Lan (visiting dance teacher), Hu Jun (Liu, master, 1936 troupe leader), Fan Wei (father from Shenzhen), Christopher Doyle (photographer), Liu Jialing [Carina Lau] (woman in sunglasses), Liang Jiahui [Tony Leung Ka-fai] (man at bar), Zhao Yazhi [Angie Chiu] (Natasha), Liao Fan (director with beard), Lin Xilei (boss lady).
Premiere: Venice Film Festival (out of competition), 2 Sep 2010.
Release: China, tba.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 2 Sep 2010.)