The Rise of a Tomboy

女汉子真爱公式

China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 92 mins.

Director: Guo Dalei 郭大雷.

Rating: 6/10.

Fluffy head-vs-heart rom-com is a good showcase for sparky TV actress Zhao Liying.

STORY

Sydney, Australia, Aug 2015. Almost 24, tomboy He Xiuwu (Zhao Liying) is a mathematical Wunderkind who believes that everything can be solved through numbers and formulae. A graduate student in Sydney University’s maths department, she’s written a dissertation that true love can be computed via a mathematical equation – her True-Love Formula 真爱公式. She’s already lost her scholarship funding because of this, so her tutor Maria (Xiang Hong) advises her to work on another dissertation, as time is now short. But He Xiuwu is convinced her True-Love Formula works, as she’s tried it out on her roommate Lili (A Lan). However, Lili is about to commit suicide, as the boyfriend found by He Xiuwu’s formula has dumped her. As she jumps into the sea, she hits a diver who rescues her – young Beijing songwriter Ye Siyi (Zhang Han), on holiday. Later, Lili tells He Xiuwu her formula is rubbish, so He Xiuwu decides to try it on herself. After a misunderstanding with Ye Siyi, whom she bumps into in the city’s red-light district, she flies back to Beijing to raise some funds for her research. Unknown to each other, she and Ye Siyi are on the same plane. Meeting him by chance at Beijing airport, He Xiuwu unwittingly causes a row between him and his girlfriend, singer Sun Qiaoqiao (Tong Fei), who stalks off. He then goes off with He Xiuwu’s suitcase by mistake, which has all her documents inside. Tracking him down at his flat in Chaoyang district, she decides to stay with him when her suitcase can’t be found. Using Ye Siyi as “research data” while trying to mend his relationship with Sun Qiaoqiao, He Xiuwu computes that she needs to date two losers before her true love shows up on 23 Sep outside the Today Art Museum. Ye Siyi offers to be her first “loser boyfriend” for a day, and the two end up drunk at a tattoo parlour. Next day, He Xiuwu visits a company interested in making her True-Love Formula into a phone app, and discovers its head is Ge Yang (Jeong Il-u), Sun Qiaoqiao’s new boyfriend. They click, as they’re both maths enthusiasts. But He Xiuwu has only a few days left to find a second “loser boyfriend”, and she also finds herself thinking of Ye Siyi more than usual.

REVIEW

A goofily-plotted, head-vs-heart rom-com between a mathematics Wunderkind and a metrosexual songwriter, The Rise of a Tomboy 女汉子真爱公式 is principally a showcase for sparky TV actress Zhao Liying 赵丽颖, a kind of younger version of actress-singer-presenter Xie Na 谢娜 (Rose War of Nana 娜娜的玫瑰战争, 2010). Zhao, 28, has so far made a small mark on the big screen (the ambitious bosom pal in The Palace 宫  锁沉香, 2013; the pregnant wife in Crazy New Year’s Eve 一路惊喜, 2015) but this is her biggest film platform to date. As insurance, she’s teamed with two actors also sprung from TV – China’s Zhang Han 张翰, 31, and South Korea’s Jeong Il-u 정일우 | 丁一宇, 28, basically male window-dressing for the target young female audience. Despite the over-busy, nonsensical plot, Zhao manages to carry the whole piece of fluff through a variety of moods, from knockabout comedy to matinee romance. Her self-obsessed character is an acquired taste but is not as annoying as she first seems.

Tomboy is the third big-screen feature by writer-director Guo Dalei 郭大雷, 39, whose previous film, supernatural drama Apparition 恶灵之门 (2014), was an interesting spin on familiar elements. Tomboy also works within a recognised genre, but tries to deconstruct the rom-com formula with a heroine, postgrad genius He Xiuwu, who thinks true love can be formulated via pure mathematics. (The film’s Chinese title means “A Tomboy’s True-Love Formula”.) Her motivation in pursuing this idea is not wanting to see a repetition of her parents’ disastrous mismatch – and that’s about it for psychology in the script. As expected most of the comedy comes from He Xiuwu trying to reduce emotions to numbers and finally falling in love despite herself. It’s not a new idea and the ending is obvious from the first reel; but writers Mei Yan 美岩, Xiong Jia’nan 熊嘉南 (Apparition) and Guo make it a pretty entertaining ride getting there, with slick production values, a bouncy score, lots of on-screen graphics in the first half, and good chemistry between Zhao and her male co-stars. It’s by no means a rom-com classic, but the tone is right.

The screenplay’s major weakness is the set-up, which takes 20 minutes and needless complexity to get the two main actors sharing a flat together so the main story can finally start. Once it does, it also shows a blithe disregard for explaining exactly how He Xiuwu’s true-love formula actually works. But the main thing is the motor-mouthed Zhao bouncing around the screen and the fast-moving, ever-changing plot. Zhang (No Limit 无极限之危情速递, 2011; An Inspector Calls 浮华宴, 2015) is an initially wet presence who slowly grows on the viewer – he and Zhao have since re-teamed in the period drama Eternal Wave 新永不消逝的电波 – while Jeong fits in better among the Chinese cast than many South Korean actors, with a solid, masculine presence as The Other Man. The rest of the cast are bits, from Mainland beauty Tong Fei 童菲 (the adopted daughter in the From Vegas to Macau 赌城风云 trilogy) as the calculating ex-girlfriend of Zhang’s character to Taiwan veteran Jin Shijie 金士杰 (who was also in Apparition) in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo as a doctor.

CREDITS

Presented by DNA Pictures (CN), Shanghai Heyi Kewen Investment (CN), Beijing Wing of National Film Culture Media (CN). Produced by DNA Pictures (CN).

Script: Mei Yan, Xiong Jia’nan, Guo Dalei. Dialogue: Ge Rang. Photography: Wu Wenzheng. Editing: Zhu Liyun. Music direction: Jiang Linfeng (Music Makers Studio). Art direction: Li Weizhong. Sound: Fang Yuan, Shi Shaohai. Action: Yu Zhehao. Visual effects: Xu Bin (123 Vision Pictures [Beijing]). Post-production direction: Zhu Liyun. Executive direction: Chen Weiqiang, Yi Liqi.

Cast: Zhao Liying (He Xiuwu), Zhang Han (Ye Siyi), Jeong Il-u (Ge Yang), Tong Fei (Sun Qiaoqiao), Jin Shijie (Jin, doctor), Tu Shimin (Du Jingxiu), A Lan (Lili/Lily), Xu Feng (tattoo-parlour boss), He Wenhui (He Jianjian, bully in lift), Wang Yiwei (Zou Le, wealthy playgirl), Mou Cong (Xiaoyu, muscular tomboy), Song Yi (Xinxin), Dong Lifan (Liu Jiangyang, dating-agency boss), Xiang Hong (Maria, He Xiuwu’s tutor), Ye Dan (Ye, doctor), Le Mu (teacher), Wang Jianzhe (Tao, doctor), Jiang Tao (Xu Hui), Zhang Liangsheng (boy), Qi Yilei (fat guy), Zhang Ziwen (fitness trainer), Li Hailong (actor), A Liang (office worker), Xiong Jia’nan (lawyer), Yuan Bin (Zhang Le, artist).

Release: China, 18 Mar 2016.