Fleet of Time
勿勿那年
China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 118 mins.
Director: Zhang Yibai 张一白.
Rating: 8/10.
Youth-to-adulthood romantic drama is conventional fare boosted by cast and packaging.
STORY
Beijing, the present day. On the cusp of 30, senior accounting analyst Chen Xun (Peng Yuyan) recalls at a drunken party in a nightclub how he once deliberately skipped a question in his university entrance exam papers – thereby forfeiting a crucial 13 marks – for the sake of a girl. Hearing him, a video artist from France, Qiqi (Liu Yase), becomes interested in him and ends up having a one-night stand. Next morning she asks him about the girl, Fang Hui (Ni Ni), and Chen Xun’s mind goes back to when they first met at senior high school 15 years ago, when she had joined his class as a quiet transfer student in 1999. The class had also included Chen Xun’s best friend, the outgoing Zhao Ye (Zheng Kai), who fancied fellow student Lin Jiamo (Zhang Zixuan); forming the third member of their group was Qiao Ran (Wei Chen), a studious, arty type. Entranced by Fang Hui, Chen Xun had managed to break through her shell, and she had ended up taking a liking to him. On 31 Dec of that year, a fight had broken out at a skating rink when a hoodlum (Luan Wei) – whose boss (Yang Mingzhe) had earlier harrassed Fang Hui, causing her to transfer schools – had recognised her. Chen Xun had defended her and, as the New Millennium dawned, they had finally kissed. (Meanwhile, in the present day, Chen Xun meets Zhao Ye, who’s now in the fashion business and about to marry, and finds that he’s hired Qiqi to shoot his wedding video, which will entail her interviewing all his old friends.) By the second year of senior high, Chen Xun, Fang Hui, Zhao Ye, Lin Jiamo and Qiao Ran had become bosom friends. However, Zhao Ye had discovered that Lin Jiamo actually loved school basketball champion Su Kai (Chen He) – though he only looked on her as a “little sister” – while Qiao Ran held a torch for Fang Hui. Chen Xun had composed a song for her on his guitar (勿勿那年) but Fang Hui was destined never to hear it. Her parents had discovered their relationship, and she had stopped seeing Chen Xun. By the third year of senior high, both were busy studying for their university entrance exam and had seen little of each other; but Chen Xun had managed to tell Fang Hui he’d follow her to whatever university she ended up at. In summer 2001 she had told him she’s done badly in her exams, losing 13 points, so would not be at the same university as him. After apologising to Qiao Ran for not reciprocating his love, she had finally told Chen Xun she loved him. That September, they had ended up at the same university, though in different faculties: he studied accountancy and she marketing. Zhao Ye had run a street stall selling clothes, and Qiao Ran has gone abroad to study at Edinburgh University. But then Chen Xun had started to get friendly with the unconventional Shen Xiaotang (Bi Xia), who was studying public finance and, like him, also played the guitar. Fang Hui had started to wonder if Chen Xun really loved her after all.
REVIEW
Teenage love proves a fragile thing across the span of 15 years in Fleet of Time 勿勿那年, another entry in the currently popular Mainland genre that follows youthful, idealistic relationships to the realities of modern-day adulthood (So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春, 2013; Forever Young 怒放之青春再见, 2014; My Old Classmate 同桌的妳, 2014). This sixth feature by director-producer Zhang Yibai 张一白 lacks the personal edge of his Chongqing-set drama Lost. Indulgence 秘岸 (2008), or the intellectual ambition of his first film Spring Subway 开往春天的地铁 (2002), but gets by on slick technique and most of the performances, in much the same way as his The Longest Night in Shanghai 夜。上海 (2007) and Eternal Moment 将爱情进行到底 (2011). Basically a will-they/won’t-they romantic drama, flashbacking to and fro from high school to the present day, it lacks the epic ambitions and character depth of So Young but within its more modest parameters is actually better balanced.
The script by Li Han 李晗 and Liu Han 刘晗, who have worked with Zhang on similar TV drama series and also serve here as executive directors, is adapted from the third novel of popular Beijing-born writer Wang Xiaodi 王晓頔, 31, a banner-carrier for the generation born in the ’80s and now in their 30s. Published in 2009, the novel had earlier started life as a kind of memoir of Wang’s and her friends’ own high-school and university days but later morphed into a deeper, heftier reflection. (Wang’s professional pseudonym, Jiuyehui 九夜茴, is the name of a mythical flower that blooms every nine nights, punishing betrayers and comforting the betrayed. Seemingly confirming the novel’s autobiographical elements, she also bases part of the main female character’s name, Fang Hui 方茴, on her own pseudonym.)
The novel was also made into a 16-part online drama series by tv.sohu.com that started airing from Aug 2014, four months before the film opened. Known in English as Back in Time, it was directed by Yao Tingting 姚婷婷 and starred Yang Le 杨玏, He Hongshan 何泓姗, Du Weihan 杜维瀚, Bai Jingting 白敬亭 and Cai Wenjing 蔡文静 as the five friends.
Starting with the main male character, Chen Xun, getting drunk at a party and confessing how he deliberately scored lower in his university entrance exam in order to follow the girl he loved, the film yoyos between past and present: the high-school and university days of Chen, Fang and their pals, and the modern day in which they reunite for the wedding of one of their group. The structure is hardly new, and the characters pretty standard as well; but the playing is lively, especially by Peng Yuyan 彭于晏 [Eddie Peng] (here re-voiced to get rid of his Taiwan accent) as Chen, Zheng Kai 郑恺 (So Young; EX-Files 前任攻略, 2014) in a typically cocky role as his best friend, and model-turned-actress Zhang Zixuan 张子萱 (the gold-digging fiancee in Love Is Not Blind 失恋33天, 2011) as the classmate he fancies.
In smaller roles, actress-singer Liu Yase 刘亚瑟 (the tomboy in So Young) is marginally irritating as a modern-day film-maker who follows the group around, a role that could almost be dispensed with; and singer Bi Xia 毕夏, 23, a discovery by TV talent show The Voice of China 中国好声音, doesn’t get much chance to develop her role as a college fling of Chen Xun. As often in Zhang’s films, the cast is studded with cameos, including director Gao Qunshu 高群书 as a street restaurateur, actress Liang Jing 梁静 as a university doctor and Zhang himself as a trainer.
The main problem is the film’s central relationship. Peng has always been better in lighter fare like this but the high-school scenes in particular (in which the 32-year-old actor is also burdened with a weird pudding-basin haircut) are rather one-sided, with him chasing Fang and her largely in a passive role in which she keeps blowing hot and cold. In only her fifth movie, actress Ni Ni 倪妮, 26, plays young more convincingly than Peng and has a suitably elusive, ethereal beauty that fits her role; but until the later stages she has to compensate with facial expressions for what the screenplay lacks in dialogue to explain her actions.
In contrast, Peng’s character, bouncing around the screen, has much more dialogue but is considerably less subtle on an emotional level. It’s a disjunct that works against the pair’s relationship, with the film only really coming together at the 90-minute point, in a drunken dinner between the five main characters that lays bare their conflicts. Ni (The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗, 2011; Love Will Tear Us Apart 我想和你好好的, 2013) shines in this sequence and the movie finally gains some real emotional traction.
As in all of Zhang’s films, packaging is very smooth, from the seamless editing by the experienced Kong Jinlei 孔劲蕾, a well-spotted romantic score by Hong Kong’s Liang Qiaobai 梁翘柏 that’s very effective at pointing up the drama, and attractive photography by Li Bingqiang 李炳强 (Two Great Sheep 好大一对羊, 2004; But Always 一生一世, 2014) that uses light-play in the youthful scenes and harder lighting for the modern day. The film was shot in Beihang University and Capital University of Economics & Business, both in Beijing. In the US and Australasia it was released under the English title Back in Time. The Chinese literally means “Hastily That Year”, the title of a song that Chen Xun composes for Fang Hui but which, in what is almost a running joke, she never gets to hear.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Galloping Horse Film (CN), Gravity Pictures Film Production (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Jiangsu Fonghong Films (CN), Le Grand Films (CN). Produced by Beijing Galloping Horse Film (CN), Gravity Pictures Film Production (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Beijing Yingshida Vision Consultants (CN).
Script: Li Han, Liu Han, Jiuyehui. Novel: Jiuyehui. Photography: Li Bingqiang. Editing: Kong Jinlei, Qian Fang. Music: Liang Qiaobai [Kubert Leung]. Title song music: Liang Qiaobai [Kubert Leung]. Lyrics: Lin Xi. Vocal: Wang Fei [Faye Wong]. Production design: Li Jingze. Art direction: Liu Peng. Costume design: Wu Lilu [Dora Ng]. Sound: Zhou Zhenyu, An Wei. Action: Chen Shuo, Yang Pin. Visual effects: Jin Xu (Illumina Creative & Visual Effects). Executive directors: Li Han, Liu Han.
Cast: Peng Yuyan [Eddie Peng] (Chen Xun), Ni Ni (Fang Hui), Zheng Kai (Zhao Ye), Wei Chen (Qiao Ran), Zhang Zixuan (Lin Jiamo), Chen He (Su Kai), Liu Yase (Qiqi/Seven, Fang Hui’s younger sister), Bi Xia (Shen Xiaotang), Du Jiayi (nightclub man), Wang Jingchun (Chinese literature teacher), Zhang Yezi (high-school doctor), Cao Weiyu (Fang Hui’s father), Zhang Yibai (trainer), Wang Haoran (Zhao Ye’s bride), Gao Qunshu (restaurant owner), Liang Jing (university doctor), Liang Jing (university head), Chen Ming (university teacher), Zou Yitian (university nurse), Huang Jue (Zhang, bank head), Shao Guan (nightclub man), Han Xuewei (nightclub woman), Liu Han (high-school class teacher), Jing Jianlin (high-school head), Luan Wei (Li He’s friend), Yang Mingzhe (Li He), Cai Jing (wedding receptionist), Song Kun, Liu Zhao (Chen Xun’s classmates), Ma Yanting, Luo Yanxin (Fang Hui’s classmates), Zhang Ningjiang (Kuang Qiang), Zheng Xuhong (university teacher), Jadie Lynn (Zheng Xue, Su Kai’s girlfriend), Li Zidong (Su Kai’s wife).
Release: China, 5 Dec 2014.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 19 Feb 2015.)