Finding Mr. Right

北京遇上西雅图

China/Hong Kong, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 123 mins.

Director: Xue Xiaolu 薛晓路.

Rating: 6/10.

Okay but unspecial rom-com is driven more by technique than its script or lead chemistry.

STORY

Seattle, the present day. Pregnant Wen Jiajia (Tang Wei), 26, arrives from Beijing on a tourist visa to clandestinely give birth to a baby by her married lover, Zhong (Liu Yiwei). She’s picked up at the aiport by a driver, Hao Zhi (Wu Xiubo), but when they arrive at the illegal maternity centre run out of a suburban house it’s in the process of being raided by the police. Hao Zhi takes to her to another one, run by a Taiwan woman, Huang Mali (Jin Yanling), in whose house are two other pregnant women, lesbian executive Zhou Yi (Hai Qing) and average working-class Chen Yue (Mai Hongmei). Funded by her rich lover, Wen Jiajia adopts an arrogant attitude towards them, and goads Zhou Yi when she finds the surrogate father of her child is a young white guy with an American girlfriend. When Christmas comes, Zhong doesn’t arrive as he’d promised. Feeling lonely, Wen Jiajia visits Hao Zhi unannounced and, as his wife Linda and daughter Hao Zhuli (Song Meihui) are out at a party, she cooks him a meal. As they talk, she realises he was the well-known cardiologist at Beijing’s Fuwai Hospital who once treated her father; Hao Zhi says he moved to the US as his wife, who’s an executive at a big pharmaceuticals company, wanted to immigrate there. Hao Zhi has to rush out when his daughter has an asthma attack at the party; afterwards, his wife stays on at the party, so Wen Jiajia invites them back to a hotel suite she’s booked into for Christmas to watch the city’s firework display. Wen Jiajia starts spending time with Hao Zhuli and, when Hao Zhi goes to New York to try to re-register as a doctor, she decides to surprise him by taking Hao Zhuli there on a sightseeing tour.

REVIEW

An odd-couple rom-com between two Beijingers thrown together in Seattle, Finding Mr. Right 北京遇上西雅图 is an okay, well-mounted entertainment that finally works as a pure tearjerker but whose script is totally artificial, even by the standards of the genre. In her second outing as a director, following the engaging Ocean Heaven 海洋天堂(2010), writer Xue Xiaolu 薛晓路 spends most of the time manipulating her characters into rom-commy situations and forgets to construct an convincing emotional arc for the two leads. The film’s comically benign portrayal of US officialdom is a further drain on the believability of the story, which sprawls across two years and uses occasional voiceovers to fill the main gaps.

This wouldn’t have mattered so much if there had been stronger on-screen chemistry between the two leads, but the teaming of actress Tang Wei 汤唯 and TV actor-singer Wu Xiubo 吴秀波 (the jokey villain in The Four 四大名捕, 2012, and murderer in the arty People Mountain People Sea 人山人海, 2011) doesn’t click sufficiently to hide the fact that the film is driven more by film-making technique than by any sense of a deep, developing relationship. Its huge success in China, where it’s become one of the top-grossing rom-coms to date [with RMB520 million], may be partly explained by the US setting and Wu’s casting, but otherwise remains a mystery.

Tang’s relaxed, seemingly spontaneous style of acting can sometimes work (Lust, Caution 色，戒, 2007; Speed Angels 极速天使, 2011) but so far hasn’t convinced in movies where the central relationship is paramount and both direction and script are weak (Crossing Hennessy 月满轩尼诗, 2010; Late Autumn 만추, 2010). In Mr. Right, Xue basically lets Tang do her own thing – which is amusing when she’s playing a rough-mouthed Beijinger but isn’t at all convincing when she tries to plumb some genuine emotion as a young pregnant woman who’s been ditched by her rich, married lover back in Beijing. Playing a self-syled “boring” father, Wu, here sporting a silver-flecked beard, is much too self-effacing for the film’s good, ceding the stage to Tang in a way that further unbalances the central relationship. In supporting roles, Taiwan veteran Jin Yanling 金燕玲 [Elaine Jin] starts well, as the illegal maternity centre’s head, but is basically ditched in the second half, as is TV actress Hai Qing 海清 (the physician’s wife in Sacrifice 赵氏孤儿, 2010), who gives Tang a run for her money in early scenes as another client of the centre.

Co-produced by Hong Kong’s Edko Films, the movie uses considerable talent from the territory – editor Zhang Jiahui 张嘉辉 [Cheung Ka-fai], d.p. Chen Zhiying 陈志英 (The Bullet Vanishes 消失的子弹, 2012), composer Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam], p.d. Xi Zhongwen 奚仲文 [Yee Chung-man], costume designer Wu Lilu 吴里璐 [Dora Ng] – to give the film a good-looking technical sheen that smoothes out some of the script bumps and brings off the tearjerker finale. But as she proved in Ocean Heaven, a small film with a big heart that defied expectations, Xue can do better than this.

Much of the film was actually shot in Vancouver, not Seattle, but to the credit of the production the joins don’t show. The Chinese title translates as “Beijing Meets Seattle”, and the fascination of Tang’s character with the US film Sleepless in Seattle is made plain early on. In a fascinating casting footnote, the daughter of Wu’s character is played by (not so identical) twins.

CREDITS

Presented by BDI Films (CN), Beijing Harmony & Harvest Communication Media (CN), Edko Films (HK), Edko (Beijing) Films (CN), China Movie Channel (CN). Produced by BDI Films (CN), Beijing Harmony & Harvest Communication Media (CN), Edko Films (HK), Edko (Beijing) Films (CN), China Movie Channel (CN).

Script: Xue Xiaolu. Photography: Chen Zhiying. Editing: Zhang Jiahui [Cheung Ka-fai]. Music: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Production design: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man]. Art direction: Scott Moulton, Su Guohao (Vancouver), Zhai Tao (Beijing). Costumes: Wu Lilu [Dora Ng] (key), Ye Jiayin (general). Sound: Zeng Jingxiang [Kinson Tsang], Yao Junxuan. Visual effects: Tang Bingbing (Base FX).

Cast: Tang Wei (Wen Jiajia), Wu Xiubo (Hao Zhi/Frank), Hai Qing (Zhou Yi/Joe), Mai Hongmei (Chen Yue/Moon), Jin Yanling [Elaine Jin] (Huang Mali/Mary), Liu Yiwei (voice of Zhong, Wen Jiajia’s boyfriend), Wang Qian (Zhong’s wife), Li Qihong (Tang, doctor), Song Meihui (younger Hao Zhuli/Julie, Hao Zhi’s daughter), Song Meiman (older Hao Zhuli/Julie, Hao Zhi’s daughter), Wang Yunfei (Linda, Hao Zhi’s wife), Tom Jones (Richard), Sotos Petrides (priest), Wang Yitong (Fei, Zhou Yi’s girlfriend), Brad Harder (sperm-donor father), Hu Junxi (Wen Jiajia’s son), Casey Manderson (wedding-shop employee), Jason Benson (immigration officer), Wu Taiyan (seafood-market cashier), Wang Hongsheng (Zhong’s driver), Aidan Parker (Darwin), Guo Hongmei(New York Chinese officer), Tan Surong (Huang’s daughter), Trevor Bess (Mike), Alex Dafoe (Wen Jiajia’s doctor), Peter Jenkins (New York Presbyterian doctor), Derek Green (Zhou Yi’s nurse).

Release: China, 21 Mar 2013; Hong Kong, 28 Mar 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 2 May 2013.)