Love in 50 Meters
50米之恋
China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 90 mins.
Director: Li Yili 李依理.
Rating: 5/10.
Pleasant but unremarkable rom-com lifted by the two leads’ enjoyable screen chemistry.
STORY
Duanfen township, Tangshan municipality, Guangdong province, some 20 years ago. At Duanfen Primary School sports day, young student announcer Yu Meiren is knocked out by a softball thrown by fellow student Li Shiquan; but at 50 metres, his throw is a record. In the present day, hot-shot TV reporter Yu Meiren (Xie Nan) gets another scoop and her editor (Lin Jinfeng) considers posting her to New York. Instead, he sends Wang Xiaoxiao (Zhang Qiaoqiao), as she has better family connections, and posts Yu Meiren to the sleepy country town of Shitou to head the team there of Li Da (Ma Ang) and Wang Momo (Dong Yiyi). Yu Meiren’s first assignment is to cover the local Dragon Boat Race, at which she falls into the water when her own boat leaks. The winning team is led by Li Shiquan (Fang Lishen), the same boy whose softball knocked her out at primary school. When Yu Meiren discovers he lives opposite where she’s staying, she starts to believe she’s cursed to have him in her life. However, she reckons his powers don’t extend more than 50 metres. Tipped off by her boss that Shiquan Farm supplies the only three-star restaurant in the county, Yu Meiren decides to investigate whether its produce is really organic; but she’s chased away by the owner, Li Shiquan’s grandfather (Shu Yaoxuan). Li Shiquan tells her that, to gain his grandfather’s approval, she must prove she understands “the language of plants” by first doing some horticulture. To protect herself from Li Shiquan’s bad karma, she carries around a range finder to make sure he’s never less than 50 metres away.
REVIEW
An ambitious but accident-prone TV reporter is despatched to the sticks where she bumps into her childhood nemesis in Love in 50 Meters 50米之恋, a pleasant but unremarkable rom-com lifted by enjoyable chemistry between its two leads. A first feature by Guangzhou-born writer-director Li Yili 李依理, following her USC graduation short, the rom-com How to Change the World 如何改变世界 (2012), it didn’t score any love at the Mainland box office, with an almost invisible RMB1.4 million.
The script’s fanciful premise is an odd-couple rom-com conducted at a distance of 50 metres, after the reporter ends up in the hometown of a boy who once knocked her out with a softball throw at primary school. Feeling she’s somehow fated to have him in her life, she still insists he keeps his distance, and carries around a gun-shaped range finder to ensure he does. Brightly shot around Duanfen township, Taishan municipality, Guangdong province (by d.p. Guo Wei 郭伟) and scored (by Hong Kong’s Lin Junhui 林钧晖 and Wu Xintu 吴欣图), it doesn’t push its comic idea too far and gets by on the lead playing of Mainland actress-presenter Xie Nan 谢楠, 36 – wife of action star Wu Jing 吴京 – as the tomboyish reporter and Hong Kong actor-singer Fang Lishen 方力申 [Alex Fong Lik-sun], 40, as the country lad. Xie has mainly had supporting roles on the big screen (such as her lively TV presenter in Sad Fairy Tale 伤心童话, 2012) but she justifies her top billing here, despite the script’s flimsiness. Fang, who coincidentally was in Wu’s directing debut Legendary Assassin 狼牙 (2008), is a variable actor but at his best here, in a bright, likeable part that doesn’t stretch him.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Firsty Media (CN), Beijing Sky Arise Pictures (CN). Produced by Beijing Firsty Media (CN).
Script: Li Yili, Li Tang, Zhang Haha. Photography: Guo Wei. Editing: Zhou Ying. Music: Lin Junhui, Wu Xintu. Art direction: Dong Hanxin. Styling: Xu Guangrui. Sound: Wang Zhengxing, Huang Zhen. Visual effects: Sun Guang (Saints Entertainment 3D Film).
Cast: Xie Nan (Yu Meiren), Fang Lishen [Alex Fong Lik-sun] (Li Shiquan), Qiu Peipei (Cheng Fang), Ma Ang (Li Da/Xiaoda), Ding Yiyi (Wang Momo), Lin Jinfeng (Wang, Yu Meiren’s editor), Zhang Qiaoqiao (Wang Xiaoxiao), Shu Yaoxuan (Li, grandfather), Mu Liyan (Yu Meiren’s mother).
Release: China, 14 Feb 2019.