What Women Want

我知女人心

China/Hong Kong, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 116 mins.

Director: Chen Daming 陈大明.

Rating: 8/10.

Liu Dehua [Andy Lau] and Gong Li shine in an improved remake of the US rom-com.

STORY

Beijing, the present day. Serial lothario Sun Zigang (Liu Dehua), creative director at an ad agency, arrives at work expecting to be promoted to executive creative director but finds CEO Dong (Li Chengru) has given the post to a woman, Li Yilong (Gong Li), a high-flyer at rival agency Mio. Dong reckons the company needs a female perspective now that women are such a consumer force. Sun Zigang privately vows to get his own back, and one night, while trying to get in touch with his “feminine side” after being set a creative challenge by Li Yilong, electrocutes himself in his bath after swallowing some contraceptive pills and wakes up to find he can hear women’s thoughts. Sun Zigang uses this gift to his own advantage when taking on Li Yilong over an ad campaign for a foreign sportswear manufacturer. But gradually the two rivals become friends, and more.

REVIEW

Though they’ve sometimes made a lot more money, no US remakes of East Asian movies have yet improved on the original. With What Women Want 我知女人心, an official remake of the 2000 Mel Gibson-Helen Hunt vehicle, the boot is on the other foot – and it’s a much better fit. In his third feature, Mainland writer-director Chen Daming 陈大明 (Manhole 井盖儿, 2003; One Foot off the Ground 鸡犬不宁, 2006) sticks pretty closely to the plot of Nancy Meyer’s over-rated rom-com but makes many tiny course corrections and tightenings – including a better transformation scene and less larking around in travesto – that smoothe out the original’s bumps and provide a much more compelling emotional arc for the whole movie.

Where the original version was a glorified platform for Gibson’s debatable comedic charms, this version is much more a partnership, with Hong Kong’s Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau] quietly soft-pedalling his character in tune with China’s Gong Li 巩俐, as his business rival whose thoughts he can read. Liu, 49, can play this kind of role blindfold, and is well revoiced here into Mandarin; the major surprise is that Gong, 45, in her first rom-com, acquits herself in relaxed style and forges a mature chemistry with Liu that really does drive the movie. With a younger actress in the part, it would have been a different – and lesser – film.

Even five years ago, a super-glossy rom-com set in China’s media/fashion world would have been unbelievable. But with the genre now established (and very much du jour) thanks to fine examples like Go Lala Go! 杜拉拉升职记 (2010) and Love in Cosmo 摇摆de婚约 (2010), it’s not only believable but also raises the bar an extra notch. Rather than just being “a remake of a US movie”, Chen’s film makes the material its own, with a convincing setting in the high-flying end of Beijing society and social manners that don’t seem transplanted. With super-slick widescreen photography by Taiwan-born Wang Dayong 汪大勇 [Max Wang] (Exit No. 6 六号出口, 2007), a smooth score by Australia’s Christopher O’Young and seamless editing by Chinese American Guan Jingyuan 关景元 [Nelson Quan], it slides along like any top-notch Hong Kong rom-com of the past decade, and leaves a small but satisfying lump in the throat at the end.

Chen can’t quite solve one of the original’s biggest structural problems (how to bring together the excess of character strands), and a further trim of some 10 minutes would tighten the second half. But the role of the lead’s father is better integrated thanks to some brief flashbacks and a charmingly light performance by veteran Wang Deshun 王德顺; other supporting roles, like the lead’s daughter, are less intrusive than in the original; and inventions like the airhead twin assistants are genuinely amusing.

The Chinese title translates as the more romantic “I Know Women’s Hearts”. The extensively re-written dialogue, which includes local puns and naturalistic exchanges, merits more than the mealy-mouthed “adaptation” given in the English credits. (The Chinese more accurately says “A film by Chen Daming” 陈大明导演作品 .)

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Bona Film & Cultural Communication (CN), China Film Group (CN), Focus Films (HK), Emperor Motion Pictures (HK).

Script: Chen Daming. Original script: Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa. Original story: Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa, Diane Drake. Photography: Wang Dayong [Max Wang]. Editing: Guan Jingyuan [Nelson Quan]. Music: Christopher O’Young. Production design: Li Zhuoyi. Art direction: Luo Diyou. Costume design: Li Yikai. Styling (for Liu Dehua): Yu Jia’an [Bruce Yu], Huang Jiabao [Stephanie Wong]. Sound: An Wei, Li Shuo. Visual effects: Gene Shih (Xing Xing Digital).

Cast: Liu Dehua [Andy Lau] (Sun Zigang), Gong Li (Li Yilong), Yuan Li (Yanni), Chen Zhipeng (Xiaofei/Tip), Li Chengru (Dong, CEO), Wang Chengde [Russell Wong] (Peter), Wang Deshun (Sun Meisheng, Sun Zigang’s father), Zhu Zhu (Xiaowu), Hu Jing (Zhao Hong), Wu Xinyi [Anya] (Dong’s wife), Shen Chang (Liu, doctor), Hu Kaili [Kelly Hu] (model in Lotto commercial), Yang Jie (photographer), Zhao Mi, Yang Luxi (models), Chang Ce (male model), IC Girls (girl band), Chen Jiajia (girl at bar), Zhang Ying (Auntie Liu), Ai Mi (girl waiting at office), Du Juan (Sun Fang/Hema/Hippo), Wen Mengyang (Li Keke/Coco), Sun Baobao, Sun Jiaojiao (Lei twins, Sun Zigang’s assistants), Tao Jia (Doudou, Sun Zigang’s daughter), Chen Daming (young Sun Meisheng, Sun Zigang’s father), Jiao Ni (Sun Meisheng’s wife), Yu Yue (young Sun Zigang), Pan Shuangshuang (Tammi), Chang Fangyuan (Liu Yang, office Plain Jane), Du Nv (Shengdanshu/Christmas Tree), Liu Heng (Fang Li), Andrew Edelson (groom), Zhang Yue, Niu Niu (Doudou’s classmates), Zhou Yizhi [Osric Chau] (Chen Erdong, Doudou’s boyfriend), Dede Nickerson (client’s representative), Wang Haizhen (nurse), Liu Jing [Chris Liu] (man with flowers), Ma Yao (Japanese restaurant maitre d’), Wang Jing, Dong Tong, Tang Qian, Wang Fei (Latin dancers), Ren Li (woman at ice-lolly stand), Wang Mian, Liu Bihe (airline stewardesses), Yu Yifan, Wang Taotao, Zhang Xiang, Peng Guanhao, Yang Lei, Gene Shih (male office staff), Wang Yuan, Yuan Qianyun, Jiang Chunqi, Li Manyun, Zheng Yuanyuan (female office staff).

Release: China, 3 Feb 2011; Hong Kong, 17 Feb 2011.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 1 Mar 2011.)