Love the Way You Are

我的青春都是你

China/Taiwan, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 91 mins.

Directors: Zhou Dansan 周丹三 [Zhou Tong 周彤], Dai Mengying 代梦颖.

Rating: 5/10.

Totally generic, fluffy student rom-com jumps the rails in its second half.

STORY

Somewhere in China, autumn 2016. Tomboyish Zhou Linlin (Song Yunhua), daughter of a small-town shop owner, has never been good at studying. Now at senior high school, and with less than a year to the university entrance exam (gaokao), she’s ordered by her mother (Wang Yue) to emulate the example of the boy opposite, geeky top student Fang Yuke (Song Weilong), who studies all hours. Exhausted by all the studying, Zhou Linlin tries to distract Fang Yuke by anonymously setting up a blind date between him and school beauty Ye Ruting (Lin Yanrou) but Fang Yuke eventually returns to his intensive schedule. In autumn 2017 Zhou Linlin scrapes into the least prestigious faculty of China Eastern University – Animal Husbandry – and to her surprise finds Fang Yuke is to go there too, as he performed way below his expected level in the gaokao. Both travel by train together to the university, but Fang Yuke is moody and silent during the journey. On her first day, Zhou Linlin is chatted up by the handsome, ambitious Xie Duanxi (Huang Junjie), who’s studying in the prestigious Life Sciences faculty. In the meantime Fang Yuke bumps into Ye Ruting, who’s also at CEU, but shows no interest in her; soon afterwards, he asks Zhou Linlin to be his girlfriend “as long as we’re at university”. Zhou Linlin, who looks upon Fang Yuke as just a friend, tells Ye Ruting that he actually likes her, so Ye Ruting invites them both to her forthcoming birthday party to find out the exact situation. When Zhou Linlin hears that Ye Ruting is to use the party as an opportunity to find the perfect partner for a forthcoming university dance, she tries to coach the geeky Fang Yuke. At the party Fang Yuke turns up, minus glasses, in smart clothes. Ye Ruting is impressed but he chooses instead to dance with Zhou Linlin, who is already quite drunk. And then, to her surprise, he kisses her – the first kiss of her life.

REVIEW

A totally generic student rom-com that gets by in its first half thanks to slick production values and a bouncy lead performance by Taiwan actress Song Yunhua 宋芸桦, Love the Way You Are 我的青春都是你 later loses traction thanks to the paper-thin script and poorly developed characters. Set at a fictional university in the Mainland, the movie was actually shot in Taiwan and – despite the use of simplified characters, fake number plates and so on – looks and feels like it, further adding to the sense of unreality. Shot during the winter of 2016/17, the majority Mainland-financed movie was passed for release at the end of 2017 but only finally saw the light of day in summer 2019, taking a nothing RMB15 million in China.

It was the first feature by young film-makers Zhou Tong 周彤 and Dai Mengying 代梦颖 but ended up being released a few days after their second film, crime comedy A Live Kidnap Show 直播攻略 (2019), lead-directed by Hu Jia 胡笳 (The Taste of Betelnut 槟榔血, 2017), which crashed with box office of only RMB64,000. The duo have since written and directed the iQiyi online costume comedy series I’ve Fallen for You 少主且慢行 (2020). Little is known about Zhou and Dai, though they both studied at Ji’nan University’s Arts College, in Guangzhou, with Dai graduating in 2012 and Zhou following her in 2013. On Love, Zhou is actually credited as Zhou Dansan 周丹三 – dansan being derived from the two constituent parts of the character tong 彤 – maybe to distinguish him from US-based indie producer Zhou Tong 周彤.

The script, credited to Dai alone, is based – not too closely – on a 2016 manga novel, 北大“差”生 (literally, “Beijing University ‘Dunce'”, see cover, left), by Po Po 破破, pen name of Shaanxi-born Zhao Xiong 赵雄, then 30, who actually attended BJU. (The novel is a kind of development of an earlier work, the 2010 盛夏流年朝朝 – see left, below.) The film acknowledges its roots in occasional use of manga panels on screen, and the cut-out characters (bored beauties, tubby roommate, class-conscious students) further underline the generic nature of the whole exercise. It’s all fluffily enjoyable during the first half, but Dai’s habit of moving her characters around at will – and having little idea of overall structure or character development – takes it toll later on.

Love was the last “student” role by Song, following her remarkable debut in Cafe. Waiting. Love 等 一个人 咖啡 (2014), the surprise summer hit Our Times 我的少女时代 (2015) and the romance Take Me to the Moon 带我去月球 (2017), all Taiwan movies. Thereafter she moved into more varied, adult roles in Mainland productions, like a crimelord’s adopted daughter in The Way of the Bug 猛虫过江 (2018) and an accountant in satire Hello Mr. Billionaire 西虹市首富 (2018). Thus, by the time Love was eventually released, it was already out-of-date in terms of Song’s screen image.

All that aside, the actress, 24 at the time of shooting, gives a sparky, wide-eyed performance that keeps the film moving when most of the other characters are just walking around looking pretty. Until he takes off his geeky glasses halfway through, Mainland actor-model Song Weilong 宋威龙, then only 17, doesn’t have any personality at all, and the token rival for his heart, played by Taiwan actress-singer Lin Yanrou 林妍柔, 26, remains doll-like throughout, with no real displays of amorous ruthlessness. A silly third-act development about saving cute rabbits from being euthanised by the students completely throws the film off course – as if Dai couldn’t come up with anything more interesting for her lead characters. Always reliable Taiwan veteran Jin Shijie 金士杰 pops in and out of the plot as a stern university prof.

The production package is very smooth throughout, especially the bright, sunny photography by Taiwan d.p. Hu Shishan 胡世山, slick cutting by Hong Kong’s experienced Xu Hongyu 许宏宇 [Derek Hui] and easy-on-the-ear music by Taiwan’s Hou Zhijian 侯志坚. The film’s Chinese title literally means “You Are My (Whole) Youth”.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Asian Union Culture Media Investment (CN), Zhejiang Dongyang Microcosmic Pictures (CN), Star Ritz International Entertainment (TW), Mon Young Pictures Entertainment (Beijing) (CN), Beijing In-Entertainment Media (CN). Produced by Star Ritz International Entertainment (TW), Mon Young Pictures Entertainment (CN).

Script: Dai Mengying. Manga: Po Po [Zhao Xiong]. Photography: Hu Shishan. Editing: Xu Hongyu [Derek Hui], Zhou Yuan. Music: Hou Zhijian. Art direction: Li Dungang, Lv Jing. Styling: Chen Bijun. Sound: Du Duzhi, Jiang Lianzhen. Visual effects: Qiu Lin, Zhang Wenchao.

Cast: Song Yunhua (Zhou Linlin), Song Weilong (Fang Yuke), Lin Yanrou (Ye Ruting), Huang Junjie (Xie Duanxi), Cai Haiyin (young Zhou Linlin), Lin Youquan (young Fang Yuke), Gao Jinyu (Da Bai, tubby roommate), Lin Yuqing (Meng Mei), Sun Qian (Xu Ji’er, glamorous roommate), Hou Yanxi (Wen Jie), Zhang Yawen (Gui Ying), Li Zhengyan (Xing Wang), Xu Yiteng (Wei Feng), Lin Jinglun (Junji), Wang Yue (Zhou Linlin’s mother), Sheng Zhuru (Zhang, animal-husbandry faculty head), Sen Jun (motorcyclist thief), Jin Shijie (Wang Xiantang, professor), Xu Haoxiang (student-affairs director).

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (China Movie Channel Media Focus), 18 Jun 2019.

Release: China, 21 Jun 2019; Taiwan, 5 Jul 2019.