No Liar, No Cry
不怕贼惦记
China, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 89 mins.
Director: Xu Chuanhai 许传海.
Rating: 4/10.
Mildly funny gold-fever comedy set on the edge of the Gobi Desert.
STORY
Gobi Desert, Xinjiang province, China, the present day. Pei (Wu Gang), who lives with his wife Xiu (Yue Xiuqing) and son Xiaopei (Zhang Bin) in a solitary house on the edge of the desert, has been under pressure to sell his mine, reputed to contain much gold, for some time – most recently from a gangster offering RMB300,000. But Pei always refuses. One day, three women in a car from Hunan stop and ask the way to Loulan: West Wind (Ying Cai’er), Six Tubes (Xia Lixin) and Eight Twigs (Yang Qing). When their car gets a puncture, the women say they’ll stay at Pei’s home until he and his son come back with a mechanic. The women try to get Pei’s wife to sign over the mine but are stymied by Pei and his son returning. Next to arrive are Taiwan film director Deng (Zhang Huizhong) and a small crew including actress Qinghua (Zhang Xinyu), who insist on shooting their film, By Hook or By Crook 千话百划, outside Pei’s home. Subsequently, a man claiming to be a geologist, Chen Qing (Tao Wei), and his wife Zheng Yueyue (Wang Yang) arrive; he says Zheng Yueyue can “feel” there is gold in the mine, and he wants to take samples back to his laboratory for analysis. A complex game of cat and mouse ensues between all parties over Pei’s mine and its gold.
REVIEW
Another knockabout satire on monetary greed in New China, this time set in a desolate spot on the edge of the Gobi Desert, No Liar, No Cry 不怕贼惦记 by first-time director Xu Chuanhai 许传海 is a mildly funny ensemble comedy that doesn’t live up to the promise of its visually impressive opening. Similar in tone to other gold-lust movies, like Welcome to Shamatown 决战杀马镇 (2010), but more compact, Liar makes good use of its desert setting and sports a quiet comic performance at its centre from Wu Gang 吴刚 (Iron Men 铁人, 2009) as the owner of the mine everyone wants a piece of. But as the bluffs and counter-bluffs escalate, and the motley group of carpetbaggers start battling each other, the film relies too much on mugging and too little on a solidly constructed script.
As the characters assemble, Liar looks like becoming a kind of comic-modern Eastern, especially when a trio of woman (dubbed the “three swordfighters”) turn up in the middle of nowhere in their four-wheel-drive. Actresses Ying Cai’er 应采儿 [Cherrie Ying] (as a tough tomboy), Xia Lixin 夏力薪 (as a glamourpuss) and Yang Qing 杨青 (as an older diva) have good chemistry together but, once a film crew and a supposed geologist and his wife join in, the movie starts running out of control, especially when everyone ends up fighting over water in the desert. Technically, it’s always good to look at, with widescreen photography shared between d.p. Zeng Jian 曾剑 (Spring Fever 春风沉醉的夜晚, 2009; Buddha Mountain 观音山, 2010) and Germany’s Florian Zinke 陆一帆. The gobbledook English title bears no relation to the Chinese one.
CREDITS
Produced by Beijing Ying Yue Xin Hai Film Productions (CN).
Script: Xu Chuanhai, Xi Tong. Photography: Zeng Jian, Florian Zinke. Editing: Huang Qiongmian. Music: Xiao Zhuang, Zhao Yi. Art direction: Wu Yue. Costume design: Wang Yujie. Styling: Xu Jianshu [Lawrence Xu]. Sound: Wang Gang, Chen Yan, Xu Yan. Visual effects: Song Yuefeng. Executive direction: Pang Qingzheng.
Cast: Wu Gang (Pei), Ying Cai’er [Cherrie Ying] (Xi Feng/West Wind), Zhang Xinyu (Qinghua), Yue Xiuqing (Xiu, Pei’s wife), Zhang Huizhong (Deng, director), Tao Wei (Chen Qing), Zhang Bin (Xiaopei, Pei’s son), Xia Lixin (Liu Tong/Six Tubes), Yang Qing (Ba Tiao/Eight Twigs), Fei Long (Heng), Zhao Yingjun (Mo Xiaobai), Wang Yang (Zheng Yueyue/Zheng Xingxing), Huang Fei (Ha), Lin Dongfu (gangster boss), Zhang Kun (Ma, police officer), Shi Feng, Li Da (gangster boss’ sidekicks).
Premiere: Tokyo Film Festival (Winds of Asia-Middle East), 23 Oct 2011.
Release: China, 9 Dec 2011.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 11 Nov 2011.)