Surprise

万万没想到

China, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins.

Director: Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing 叫兽易小星.

Rating: 5/10.

Sketch-based riff on Journey to the West is an amusing diversion but not much more.

STORY

Somewhere in China, Tang dynasty. A Buddhist monk (Chen Bolin) is travelling to Stone Ox township with his disciples Sun Wukong, aka Monkey (Liu Xunzimo), Zhu Bajie, aka Pigsy (Mike D. Angelo), and Sha Wujing, aka Sandy (Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing). En route they are attached by the Dark Evil Spirit, which Monkey, after protecting his friends within a giant glass jar, tries to fight off. (The previous day in Stone Ox Town wannabe local hero Wang Dachui [Bai Ke] – who loves sesame cakemaker Su Xiaomei [Yang Zishan] even though she thinks he’s a loser – was overshadowed by the township’s real hero, Murong Bai [Ma Tianyu]. He warded off the White Tiger Demon [Lei Yuezhen] when it came looking for the township’s “magical weapon” to defeat Monkey. However, no one in Stone Ox knows what the “magical weapon” actually is, and Murong Bai lives under his family’s curse of a short life.) Wang Dachui meets Monkey outside town and offers to help him fight the Dark Evil Spirit; they’re joined by Su Xiaomei, and Monkey trains both of them to fight. At the White Tiger Demon’s cave, Wang Dachui retrieves Su Xiaomei’s purse but cannot find Monkey’s Golden Elixir. Monkey goes off in a huff. When Wang Dachui brings the White Tiger Demon into town, the latter frees himself and does battle with Murong Bai. After defeating the White Tiger Demon, Murong Bai imprisons Wang Dachui in his underground lair. Murong Bai finally makes a pact with the devil in exchange for immortality, and Su Xiaomei agrees to marry him in exchange for Wang Dachui being set free. Murong Bai then sets about reversing the township’s protective circle and freeing the Dark Evil Spirit.

REVIEW

A costume martial-arts comedy riffing on the classic Journey to the West 西游记, Surprise 万万没想到 is a collection of hit-and-miss gags masquerading as a feature film. Spun off a weekly online sketch show on Youku, and featuring several of the same people, the movie is more interesting for the way in which it underlines the importance of online media in contemporary Mainland cinema as a source of ideas and talent. An amusing diversion but not much more, the surprise about Surprise was the way in which it initially held its ground at China’s box office against year-end heavy-hitters.

The brains behind the operation is Hunan-born Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing 叫兽易小星 (literally, Yi “The Beast” Xiaoxing), an online writer-director whose weekly series of short comedy sketches 王大锤传奇の万万没想到 (“The Legend of Wang Dachui: Who’d Have Thought It”) first appeared on Youku in 2013. Several of the same writers and actors made it to the film, including lead Bai Ke 白客 (real name: Luo Hongming 罗宏明) who rose to fame on the back of the character, a goofy wannabe martial-arts hero whose name literally means “Sledgehammer Wang”. (The popularity of Bai Ke and Yi led to them making cameos in the 2015 CNY comedy Crazy New Year’s Eve 一路惊喜, as a geeky neighbour of the wedding planner and the TV gala director.)

Yi hasn’t attempted to replicate the online series’ low-budget look; instead, with more serious money behind him this time, he’s loaded up the film with names in front of and behind the screen. Among the former are mumbly Taiwan heartthrob Chen Bolin 陈柏霖 (who has some fun as the not-so-holy Buddhist monk) and fast-rising Mainland actress Yang Zishan 杨子珊 (as the wannabe hero’s girlfriend), plus cameos by people like Qiao Renliang 乔任梁 and Tong Liya 佟丽娅 (as a pair of cannibals) and Hong Kong’s ubiquitous Zeng Zhiwei 曾志伟 (Eric Tsang, as a pesky Earth Spirit). Trendy writer-director Han Han 韩寒 (The Continent 后会无期, 2014, in which Bai Ke cameoed) even pops up at the end and gets a credit as “artistic director”. It’s that kind of movie.

Behind the camera, Yi has gone for experience. Mainland editor Xiao Yang 肖洋 brings the whole thing in at a tight 95 minutes (which includes over six minutes of leisurely end titles), Hong Kong d.p. Cai Chonghui 蔡崇辉 [Choi Sung-fai] (The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D 智取威虎山, 2014) gives a pro gloss to all the antics, and Japanese anime composer Takanashi Yasuharu 高梨康治 suitably supports all the OK visual effects. But despite all that, the film still has the feel of a small one punching above its weight.

As she’s proved in So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春 (2013) and Miss Granny 重返20岁 (2015), Yang, 29, can be a formidable talent with the right material, but in Surprise she’s not stretched at all as the wannabe hero’s girlfriend, despite a spunky start (and top billing in the credits). Bai Ke, 27, is serviceable in the main role but he doesn’t yet have the personality or experience to carry a whole movie, especially with a sketch-based screenplay as here. (Imagine an established actor like Deng Chao 邓超 in the same role, and the difference becomes clear.) In supporting roles, another Yi regular, Liu Xunzimo 刘循子墨 makes a lively Monkey and Yi himself weighs in briefly as thicko disciple Sandy.

Despite all the name decoration, Surprise simply doesn’t cut it in the big league of other costume comedies like Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 西游  降魔篇 (2013) and Monster Hunt 捉妖记 (2015), alongside both of which it has to be judged. (Its production title, 万万没想到  西游篇, even punned on Journey‘s.) After a slowish start that’s mostly given over to verbal gags, the film briefly realises its promise just after the halfway mark before the visual effects take over. In retrospect, Yi might have done better to have stayed low-budget throughout – at least in look and feel – as another web-spawned comedian, Da Peng 大鹏, did with his superhero parody Jianbing Man 煎饼侠 (2015).

CREDITS

Presented by Unimedia (CN), Heyi Pictures (CN), Dimension Films (CN), PMF Pictures (CN), Guomai Culture & Media (CN), Bona Film Group (CN), Heyi Information Technology (Beijing) (CN), CMC Holdings (CN), Maoyan Media (CN). Produced by Unimedia (CN), Heyi Pictures (CN), Dimension Films (CN), PMF Pictures (CN), Guomai Culture & Media (CN), Bona Film Group (CN), Heyi Information Technology (Beijing) (CN), CMC Holdings (CN), Maoyan Media (CN).

Script: Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing, Hu Shuxin, Wang Weijie, Liu Xunzimo, Ke Da. Photography: Cai Chonghui [Johnny Choi], Li Qiang. Editing: Xiao Yang. Music: Takanashi Yasuharu. Art direction: Yuan Feng. Styling: Han Lu, Zhao Ranqi, Yi Honglun. Sound: Yang Jingyi. Action: Liu Mingzhe. Special effects: Zhou Zijun. Visual effects: Xu Fei (Beijing Orient Media). Artistic direction: Han Han. Executive direction: Wang Weijie.

Cast: Yang Zishan (Su Xiaomei), Bai Ke (Wang Dachui), Chen Bolin (Buddhist monk), Ma Tianyu, Murong Bai), Liu Xunzimo (Sun Wukong/Monkey), Mike D. Angelo [Pirath Nitipaisankul] (Zhu Bajie/Pigsy), Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing (Sha Wujing/Sandy), Eric Tsang (Grandpa Earth), Zhao Wenxuan (Murong Hao), Han Han (White Dragon Horse), Jia Ling (Jia Ling’er), Zhao Yingjun (drum-beating little demon), Kong Lianshun (Kong Lian’er), Xiao’ai (Liu Canglang), Ben Yu (Zhang Nanshan), Ge Bu (Ye Chenyu), Ke Da (Ke Beihai), Tong Liya (scorpion woman), Qiao Renliang (catfish man), Zhi Zunyu (Li Changhuai), Zhao Wenjie (Zhao Hanliang), Zheng Hehuizi (Zheng Qiuxiao), Wang Lingyu (Wang Zhiqin), Hu Jieqiong (Hu Rouge), Chen Yelin (Chen Dexi), Fan Xiaodong (Fan Zaixu), Wang Jiahui (girl fan), Lei Yuezhen (White Tiger Demon), Zhu Jiayu (young Murong Bai), Ji Zihan (young Su Xiaomei), Feng Junjie (young Wang Dachui), Gao Hailong (Su Xiaomei’s grandfather), Ye Han (thin man), Hu Zhiming (little boy), Xiao Huifang (Granny Liu, old tofu-maker), Qian Youyou (Auntie Wang), Kabongo Mulasa Pitshou (Iron Bull).

Release: China, 18 Dec 2015.