Go Lala Go II

杜拉拉II追婚记

China/Hong Kong, 2015, colour, 2.35:1, 103 mins.

Director: Anzhu Jian 安竹间 [Andrew Chien].

Rating: 5/10.

Belated follow-up to the original office rom-com is mostly blah, apart from Lin Yichen’s lively lead.

STORY

Shanghai, Pudong district, 23 Oct 2015. Carrie (Chen Yanxi), a young woman who’s been cheated out of everything by her fiance, threatens to jump off an office building in her wedding dress. She’s talked out of it by her friend and colleague Du Lala (Lin Yichen). Now 33, Du Lala despairs of her live-in boyfriend, Wang Wei (Zhou Yumin), former sales director at DB Group who’s now switched careers and set up his own photography studio, ever proposing marriage to her. Du Lala still works at DB as a personnel manager; she’s applied for a promotion, but DB’s American CEO, Howard, assigns her to assist Qu Luoyi (Wu Junmei) at SC Group, a fashion company founded by young playboy-adventurer Chen Feng (Chen Bolin) that DB has just acquired. Qu Luoyi, who has a reputation for toughness, has been brought in by DB from New York as general manager of the new acquisition. Du Lala is given a hard time by Qu Luoyi’s longtime personal assistant, Le (Li Jiahang), and is assigned as her assistant a part-time model, Sha Dangdang (Nana), who makes it clear she wants Du Lala’s job in a year’s time. Nagged by her mother to get married and under pressured at work from Qu Luoyi, Du Lala has a major row with Wang Wei, who’s still trying to make it in his new profession. When Qu Luoyi is hospitalised after an accident, Du Lala has to take over her strategy presentation to Chen Feng at short notice; to boost her importance, she gives herself the title of assistant general manager. Chen Feng takes a liking to her and asks her along on a photo shoot on Samui Island, Thailand; also in the group is Wang Wei, whom Sha Dongdong, who fancies him, has recommended to Chen Feng as a replacement photographer.

REVIEW

When actress-director Xu Jinglei 徐静蕾 made Go Lala Go! 杜拉拉升职记 back in 2010, it was in the vanguard of a new type of cinema that was taking over the Mainland market – a blend of chickflick, rom-com and yuppie values that expressed the aspirations of a certain 1980s, metro generation. Along with candy-coloured rom-coms like Sophie’s Revenge 非常完美 (2009), it was on the cusp of a new Zeitgeist. Nowadays, however, Du Lala – the creation of pseudonymous authoress Li Ke 李可, and already adapted into TV drama series, theatre plays and online dramas – is just one of many female characters obsessing about career vs marriage in glossy office rom-coms – and on that basis Go Lala Go II 杜拉拉II追婚记, the belated follow-up to Xu’s original film, is nothing special. In fact, after a promising start, it’s worse than that: the movie simply stalls halfway and goes nowhere in terms of character or dramatic development.

Based on the second book in the series – Lala II: Those Shining Days 杜拉拉2  华年似水 (2009) – it’s the first feature by Taiwan’s Anzhu Jian 安竹间 [Andrew Chien], whose day job is as a brand manager in advertising but who since 2009 has also directed several shorts. It predictably looks terrific on the design side, with a witty and stylishly staged main-title sequence – eat your heart out, Office 华丽上班族 (2015) – and subsequent widescreen images by Spanish-born French d.p. Dylan Doyle (Touch of the Light 逆光飞翔, 2012) that are all light, white and bright. It’s all very Shanghai, and a long way from the first film’s harder, northern, Beijing look. But looks aren’t everything in office rom-coms: ultimately, performances and screen chemistry carry the day. Though the script of Xu’s film was not much better than the present one by first-timers Gou Xingyan 苟兴妍 and Anju Jian, Xu’s film had a seasoned cast that carried the drama with a heft that the players in Go Lala Go II just don’t have.

Though the movie is funded by Mainland and Hong Kong money, the lead cast is dominated by Taiwan names equally known for their TV work. As the heroine’s will-he/won’t-he boyfriend, F4 boybander Zhou Yumin 周渝民 [Vic Chou], 34, is as bland here as he is in most of his film roles (Linger 蝴蝶飞, 2008; A Moment of Love 回到爱开始的地方, 2013; Detective Gui 宅女侦探桂香, 2015), and is utterly unbelievable as the same character portrayed by Huang Lixing 黄立行 [Stanley Huang] in the first film, as well as being a decade younger than he should be. Appearing half-an-hour in, and looking like he just drifted on-set in his spare time, Chen Bolin 陈柏霖, 32, is less mumbly than usual but looks as if he doesn’t believe a word of the dialogue. The best that can be said is that he has an easy chemistry with lead actress Lin Yichen 林依晨, 33, with whom he’s worked several times, including the fluffy but charming Lovesick 恋爱恐慌症 (2011).

It’s Lin who makes the whole film borderline watchable even when, in the second half, the plot and characters are coasting in neutral and the dialogue is skin-crawlingly awful. An actress with a natural talent for goofy rom-com, and who showed a real sense of fun in crime comedy Sweet Alibis 甜蜜杀机 (2014), Lin already played Du Lala in a 2009 stage version of the first book in the series. Though very different from Xu’s rather airy, laidback performance, Lin plays Du Lala at exactly her own age, and is both lively and likeable, holding her ground even against older cast like Wu Junmei 邬君梅 [Vivian Wu], who entertainingly drifts in and out as her ball-breaking boss. The rest of the younger cast are camp, bimbo or nothing at all, with South Korean singer-actress Nana 娜娜 (aka Im Jin-a 임진아 | 林珍儿) dubbed with a grating airhead voice and Taiwan’s Chen Yanxi 陈妍希 [Michelle Chen] cameoing as a cry-baby suicidal bride.

The Chinese title roughly means “How Du Lala Got Married”, following on from the first film’s which meant “How Du Lala Got Promoted”. In Hong Kong the Chinese title was 追婚日记 (literally, “Marriage-Chasing Diary”), with Du Lala’s name dropped. The film flopped in China, grossing less than half the first film’s box office. Credited with “script supervision” is Yan Suqian 严苏倩, one of three writers on the awkwardly structured rom-com Meet Miss Anxiety 我的早更女友 (2014), also funded by New Classics Media.

CREDITS

Presented by New Classics Media (CN), Fox International Channels Asia Pacific (HK). Produced by New Classics Media (CN).

Script: Gou Xingyan, Anzhu Jian. Script supervision: Yan Suqian. Photography: Dylan Doyle. Editing: Li Dongquan [Wenders Li]. Music: You Mingxun. Music direction: Lv Zhenhuang. Art direction: Liang Guoxiang. Styling: Cao Weikang. Sound: Qi Siming, Du Duzhi, Wu Shuyao. Visual effects: Grass Jelly Studio (opening), Minimax (whole film).

Cast: Zhou Yumin [Vic Chou] (Wang Wei/David), Lin Yichen (Du Lala), Chen Bolin (Chen Feng/Stanley), Nana [Im Jin-a] (Sha Dangdang), Wu Junmei [Vivian Wu] (Qu Luoyi/Maggie), Li Jiahang (Le, Qu Luoyi’s assistant), Qiu Muhan (Lin Daiyu), Chen Yanxi [Michelle Chen] (Carrie), Li Bohong (Xiaowen, fiance with cancer), Yang Yongcong (James, Carrie’s rescue doctor/fiance), Sun Xiaoxiao (Xiaoli, Xiaowen’s fiancee), Yin Hang (Xiaoyi), Tony (Howard), Liang Chen (Liang Wei), Du Juan (MC).

Release: China, 4 Dec 2015; Hong Kong, 10 Dec 2015.