Home Coming
万里归途
China, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 137 mins.
Director: Rao Xiaozhi 饶晓志.
Rating: 7/10.
Visually impressive but emotionally rather cool drama of Chinese workers evacuated from a war-torn Arab country.
STORY
Numia, a country in the Arab world, 19 Feb 2015. With violent demonstrations against the president and the country plunged into civil war, the airport in the capital, Laiputis, is closed, though the Chinese embassy manages to evacuate citizens on the last plane to have landed before the closure. Giving up their seats to two Taiwan evacuees, foreign ministry personnel Zong Dawei (Zhang Yi) and the young Cheng Lang (Wang Junkai) stay behind in the country and drive back to the capital with two embassy staffers, first secretary Zhang Ning (Zhang Zixian) and political attache Yan Xingzhou (Cheng Taishen). At a road block they are all detained when Cheng Lang is spotted filming an incident in the street. They are told they will be released on payment of a 500 dinar fine, which Zong Dawei pays against the protestations of his colleagues. As they walk out into the street, a bomb goes off; with only minor injuries they make it back to the embassy, where staff are busy burning papers. Zong Dawei calls his heavily pregnant wife Chen Yue (Wan Qian) in Beijing; to save her worrying, he pretends he’s now safe in Dubai. At a meeting of senior embassy staff, Yan Xingzhou says the main evacuation route is the eastern sea lane off of Terna; but first a couple of staff must sort out a problem on Numia’s western border, where Chinese construction workers have had their passports stolen and cannot leave the country via that border exit. He sends Zhang Ning and Cheng Lang, along with local driver Wadir (Omer Yuzuak), to sort it out. Because his wife is about to give birth, Zong Dawei is excused by his old friend Zhang Ning from going on the mission, even though he speaks fluent Arabic. But when Zhang Ning is shot dead that night in a burst of street violence, Zong Dawei takes his place the following morning. After arriving at the border checkpoint, Zong Dawei gradually talks round the senior officer there, Hassan (Yves Finkel), into letting him prepare over a thousand temporary exit visas for the Chinese workers so they can exit Numia to Tulisia, and thence get a flight home. But at the last moment Zong Dawei – along with Cheng Lang and Wadir – goes back into Numia to rescue Bai Hua (Yin Tao), the wife of Zhang Ning, whose car broke down in a war zone, Saibulata. When they eventually reach her, they find the situation is very different from what they imagined.
REVIEW
A patriotic heartwarmer centred on Chinese being evacuated from a strife-torn Arab country, Home Coming 万里归途 has roundly trounced the local National Day competition (Ordinary Hero 平凡英雄; Steel Will 钢铁意志) with a muscular RMB1.45 billion [final hawl was RMB1.59 billion] but seems a curious choice for writer-director Rao Xiaozhi 饶晓志, a writer-director-producer whose roots are solidly in the theatre and who only made his first big-screen feature some six years ago. Rao has largely focused on character-driven comedy – some of which percolates into Home Coming via the sly performance of lead actor Zhang Yi 张译 – and there are signs throughout the movie that he’s at pains to avoid making just a rote flag-waver. However, the result, though never boring, is curiously cool and detached, mitigating against any deep emotional involvement with its characters – without which the whole exercise, meant to be inspirational, is basically pointless. On the plus side, the fictional Middle East setting is impressively evoked and most of the cast deliver convinced performances.
Born in Guizhou province, Rao, now 42, studied directing at Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama and went on to work in the theatre. He tried his hand at TV comedy with the New Year comedy series 极品大作战 (2013; literally, “The Best and Biggest Battles”) before directing the absurdist comedy The Insanity 你好，疯子！ (2016), which he’d already directed on stage. Despite its qualities, the film hardly registered at the box office; but two years later Rao broke through with his second feature, the black crime comedy A Cool Fish 无名之辈 (2018), which boasted a fine cast and precision construction, and took at very nice RMB795 million at the box office. After working on the production side of various movies (including The Eleventh Chapter 第十一回, 2019, and A Writer’s Odyssey 刺杀小说家, 2021), Rao remade the 2012 Japanese comedy Key of Life 鍵泥棒のメソッド as End Game 人潮汹涌 (2021), starring Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau], Xiao Yang 肖央 and Wan Qian 万茜, which also took a very nice RMB762 million.
Though it’s not an action movie, the film trades on the same sentiments as, say, the blockbuster Wolf Warrior II 战狼II (2017) – that China will never leave its people stranded wherever they are in the world. It’s no surprise to discover that the project was actually initiated by Guo Fan 郭帆 (sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth 流浪地球, 2019), whose team conducted the initial interviews with real-life diplomats; Guo eventually persuaded an initially uninterested Rao to direct, and the latter then developed the material in his own style, with the title changing from 翻译官 (literally, “The Interpreter”) to the more inspirational 万里归途 (“The Long Way Home”). The final script is credited to four other writers, including Qin Haiyan 秦海燕 (child-kidnap drama Lost, Found 找到你, 2018), Rao’s regular co-writer Lei Zhilong 雷志龙, Shi Ce 史册 (online action movie Biubiubiu 硬汉枪神, 2021) and Bu Jingwei 步京委. Guo takes a creative producer 监制 credit, along with Wang Hongwei 王红卫 (The Wandering Earth; A Writer’s Odyssey).
As the Arabic-speaking diplomat who ends up almost stranded in the country and negotiating the passage of over a thousand Chinese workers, the hangdog Zhang (One Second 一秒钟, 2020) brings his usual phlegmatic, quizzical style to the role. He’s no action hero, but isn’t meant to be. With a heavily pregnant wife in Beijing (Wan, Endgame, good in a small role) who thinks he’s already been evacuated to Dubai, Zhang’s character stays on partly to discharge a debt of duty to an old friend who lost his life in some street violence as much as from a sense of doing his actual job protecting nationals. It’s a pity the actor doesn’t get much support from young pop idol Wang Junkai 王俊凯 (The Fallen Bridge 断•桥, 2022), who’s simply millennial-bland as his raw assistant, and comes across as a spoilt brat when having shouty moments with his boss. Luckily, Zhang does later get actress Yin Tao 殷桃 (Sunny Sisters 阳光姐妹淘, 2021) to react off of, as his late pal’s stranded wife, though this hardly fills the movie’s big emotional hole. Ironically, some of Zhang’s best scenes are actually opposite Yves Finkel, a China-based fashion designer and businessman who plays a slyly manipulative border guard delaying the exit of the Chinese workers.
Thought the film was shot entirely in China, the fictional Middle East setting (“Numia”) is convincing, partly due to the strikingly realistic widescreen landscapes by d.p. Liao Ni 廖拟 (The Continent 后会无期, 2014; Chongqing Hot Pot 火锅英雄, 2016; Endgame; Love Will Tear Us Apart 我要我们在一起, 2021) but also to Rao’s evocative you-are-there direction. Shooting took place between Apr and Aug 2022.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Huace Pictures (CN), Shenzhen Yiyiyiyi Culture Communication (CN), Zhejiang HG Entertainment (CN), G! Film (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Free Whale Pictures (CN).
Script: Rao Xiaozhi, Qin Haiyan, Lei Zhilong, Shi Ce, Bu Jingwei. Photography: Liao Ni. Editing: Ye Xiang. Music: Li Heng. Art direction: Li Miao. Styling: Li Zhou. Sound: Jiang Jianqiang. Action: Fu Xiaojie. Visual effects: Liu Ying, Chen Jianwei. Executive direction: Ma Ming.
Cast: Zhang Yi (Zong Dawei, first secretary at Consular Protection Centre), Wang Junkai (Cheng Lang, Consular Protection Centre staffer), Yin Tao (Bai Hua, wife of Zhang Ning), Cheng Taishen (Yan Xingzhou, political attache), Zhang Zixian (Zhang Ning, first secretary at embassy in Numia), Chen Haoyu (Zhong Ranran), Wang Xun (Liu Minghui), Wan Qian (Chen Yue), Li Xuejian (Lv Yisong), Li Chen (Yang Bin, first secretary at embassy in Tulisia), Wang Zhi (chief stewardess), Wen Tao (Fei, embassy employee), Wu Enxuan (Xiao’ai), Guo Yiqian (Dazhi), Xie Chengying (Xia), Li Luqi (Li Tao, ex-soldier), Zhao Zichong (Ge), Wang Zhaoqing (Zhao Peiyan), Yan Chang (Guo Xinxuan), Li Kai (Cao Yong, Jitian Oil Workshop head), Zhu Chaoyi (Sheng), Xie Xinhua (Xiaoxu), Hou Xiaotong (Xiaotong), Mu Liyan (Chen Yue’s mother), Omer Yuzuak (Wadir, driver), Elain Ahmed Lotf Rageh Algahefi (Fatima), Ivan Maverick (Muffuta, rebel leader), Yves Finkel (Hassan, border officer), Amro Zaghloul (Salih), Ahmed Mohammed Jaber Alkalthoom (Kamal, Hassan’s subordinate).
Release: China, 30 Sep 2022.