Girls

闺蜜

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 118 mins.

Director: Huang Zhenzhen 黄真真 [Barbara Wong].

Rating: 4/10.

Poorly written, rom-commy story of three BFFs is partly rescued by individual performances.

STORY

Taibei, the present day. Flatmates and best friends since childhood, Xiwen (Chen Yihan), Kimmy Han (Xue Kaiqi) and Xiaomei (Yang Zishan), all in their late 20s, are interviewed by Hong Kong director Huang Zhenzhen (Huang Zhenzhen) for her documentary Women’s Private Parts 2 女人那话儿2. Afterwards, Huang Zhenzhen gives Xiaomei, who’s been working as her assistant for 18 months, the chance to take over direction, with Huang Zhenzhen being just the presenter. Xiwen is summoned to the airport by her fiance Lin Jie (Zhong Hanliang), who says he has to suddenly fly off on business. Subsequently, however, she and her two friends catch him romancing another woman, Peipei (Cheng Ruowei), whom he says he loves. He dumps Xiwen, who goes into a catatonic state and has to be looked after by Kimmy Han and Xiaomei round the clock. Finally, they manage to shock her out of it, and Kimmy Han arranges for Xiwen to meet some handsome guys. However, Xiwen, drunk, goes into the wrong karaoke room, and ends up with the quiet Qiao Li (Yu Wenle), who drops her off home. Meanwhile, to help Xiaomei’s media career, Kimmy Han has been trying to hook her up with Taiwan film director Li An [Ang Lee] and singer Jiutian (Wu Jianhao) at a party her company has organised. In the event, Xiaomei doesn’t need her help, and goes off with Jiutian to his yacht; when she comes home the following morning, she has a row with the over-protective Kimmy Han. Xiwen meets Qiao Li for a drink, and later has a heart-to-heart with Lin Jie. When Xiaomei tells her friends that she’s agreed to accompany Jiutian on his European tour, Kimmy Han tries to talk her out of throwing away her career on a fling with a man; when Xiaomei refuses, Kimmy Han takes radical measures.

REVIEW

Three BFFs soon to hit 30 do a lot of hugging, spatting, bitching and talking about sex in Girls 闺蜜, the third Mainland-funded rom-com in a row by Hong Kong writer-director Huang Zhenzhen 黄真真 [Barbara Wong] and, like her previous The Stolen Years 被偷走的那五年 (2013), actually set and shot in Taiwan with a Greater China cast. It would be nice to report that Wong, 47, has started to learn something about film-making after almost a dozen features. But Girls is full of the same superficial characters, cliched situations, transparently fake emotions, rocky script development and lack of genuine humour that’s distinguished all of her work, apart from the surprisingly accomplished Perfect Wedding 抱抱俏佳人 (2010). Once again, Huang’s lack of any original ideas is partly masked by a strong cast (including Taiwan’s Chen Yihan 陈意涵 and China’s Yang Zishan 杨子珊) and technical crew (Mainland d.p. Chen Cheng 陈诚, Hong Kong editor Kuang Zhiliang 邝志良); but even they can’t completely disguise the fact that this is a rom-com mostly running on empty, and with a final half-hour that’s both unnecessary and, for a rom-com, borderline distasteful.

Together, lead actresses Chen, Yang and Hong Kong actress-singer Xue Kaiqi 薛凯琪 [Fiona Sit] have a manufactured chemistry that isn’t any deeper than the schematic allocation of their jobs (hotel admin, film direction, event management). Supposedly friends for 20 years, but given no compelling reason by the script why they have been, they spend most of the time so absorbed in themselves that when they start rowing and dragging out their dirty emotional laundry it’s a rare moment of real communication.

Chen, 32, who’s just been getting better and better recently (Campus Confidential 爱情无全顺, 2013; Paradise in Service 军中乐园, 2014), has some slapstick fun early on as a dumped fiancee and then shares the film’s best scenes with an impressively relaxed Yu Wenle 余文乐 [Shawn Yue], as a gentleman divorcee. Yang, who came to fame as the lead in So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春 (2013), and is the only one of the three actresses playing her real age, has much less to work with here as the wannabe, somewhat defensive film-maker, but does manage a few moments of more genuine emotion opposite Taiwan American singer Wu Jianhao 吴建豪 [Van Ness Wu], playing a rock star. In the noisiest and most irritating role, as a US-educated media rich-bitch who’s supposedly an expert on men but actually seems happier with women, Xue, 33, hits her marks in a mechanical way, and is given no scenes exploring her character’s need for constant attention.

The denouement, in which Xue’s character invades the life of one of her pals in a completely filmy way, makes no apparent sense and also comes half-an-hour before the movie’s actual ending (which makes even less psychological sense). As if contracted to make a two-hour film, but devoid of ideas, Huang pads out the remainder with a ridiculous rape story involving one of the trio that’s directed like a bad 1980s Hong Kong movie and simply serves to highlight the film’s unpleasant misandry represented by Xue’s character. This final section helps knock a further point off a film that had just about scraped 5/10 for its technical finesse (largely courtesy Years d.p. Chen) and some individual performances (Chen, Yang, Yu).

Paralleling her characters’ self-absorption, Huang also plays herself making a supposed follow-up to the documentary that launched her career, Women’s Private Parts 女人那话儿 (2000). It’s just one of several in-jokes that are scattered through the movie, and appear to confirm that Huang and her writing team (again including Hong Kong’s Hou Yingheng 侯颖桁 and Zheng Shanyu 郑善瑜) seem unable to create real characters beyond media types or film stereotypes.

Though set and shot in Taiwan, and with some characters having Taiwan accents, the film has a curiously placeless feel, and an overall vibe that’s actually more Mainland than Taiwan or Hong Kong. The original title roughly means “Bosom Buddies” or “BFFs” in Chinese.

CREDITS

Presented by Fujian Hengye Film Distribution (CN). Produced by Fujian Hengye Film Distribution (CN).

Script: Huang Zhenzhen [Barbara Wong], Li Min [Erica Li], Hou Yingheng, Zheng Shanyu, Sun Fengjie, Xia Yongkang [Wing Shya]. Photography: Chen Cheng. Editing: Kuang Zhiliang, Li Jiarong. Music: Lei Songde [Mark Lui]. Art direction: Li Dungang. Costume designer: Lin Xinyi. Sound: Du Duzhi. Action: Zhu Boyu, Lin Keren. Visual effects: Zheng Wenzheng (Creasun Media).

Cast: Chen Yihan (Xiwen), Xue Kaiqi [Fiona Sit] (Kimmy Han), Yang Zishan (Xiaomei), Yu Wenle [Shawn Yue] (Qiao Li), Zhong Hanliang [Wallace Chung] (Liu Jie), Wu Jianhao [Van Ness Wu] (Jiutian), Cheng Ruowei (Peipei), Wu Peining (Kimmy Han’s assistant), Huang Shishi, Wu Ruizhen (documentary interviewees), Lin Keren (assistant to Li An [Ang Lee]), Hiro Hayama (Tony, rapist).

Release: China, 31 Jul 2014.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 21 Dec 2014.)