Mr. & Mrs. Single

隐婚男女

China/Japan, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 100 mins.

Director: Ye Nianchen 叶念琛 [Patrick Kong].

Rating: 7/10.

Gentle office rom-com of sexual misunderstandings does the business.

STORY

Beijing, the present day. Though happily married, yuppie couple Cui Minguo (Chen Yixun) and Zhang Jingyi (Bai Bing) dream of earning enough money to buy their own place. When Cui Minguo’s friend Tony (Yu Chengqing), who works at perfume company Rêves, tells him the job of personal assistant to the managing director is available, at a monthly salary of RMB15,000, Cui Minguo applies. The only catch is that workaholic m.d. Mandy (Liu Ruoying) stipulates the lucky applicant must remain unmarried for three years and be on call 24/7. With a little help from Tony, Cui Minguo gets the job and, after a nervous start, saves the day during a presentation to a Japanese client, Yamamoto (Bai Long), thanks to his highly developed sense of smell. When Zhang Jingyi, who works in the same building, learns about Cui Minguo having to keep their marriage secret, she’s initially upset but later helps him in the cover-up. However, after Cui Minguo misses a Chinese Valentine’s Day dinner with her because of looking after Mandy, Cui Jingyi starts to get suspicious of the time the two are spending together. Things only get worse when Mandy, who’s started to take a liking to Cui Minguo, invites him along on a business trip to Taimushan, a beauty spot down south in Fujian province.

REVIEW

The trademark cynicism of Hong Kong director Ye Nianchen 叶念琛 [Patrick Kong] about modern relationships gets a Mainland makeover in Mr. & Mrs. Single 隐婚男女, his first movie in Mandarin and for the China market. Kitted out with Hong Kong’s Chen Yixun 陈奕迅 [Eason Chan] as a Mainland Cantonese and Taiwan’s Liu Ruoying 刘若英 [René Liu] as his boss – two high-profile leads by Ye’s usually modest standards – it’s one of the director’s best movies, following his equally strong Marriage with a Liar 婚前试爱 (2010). It’s also one of his least showy, free of any auteurist cleverness and with a solid script derived from a play. Ye’s cynicism on love and related matters is directed here at China’s new money-obsessed yuppie class rather than vapid Hong Kongers, and is poured into a familiar mould (the office rom-com) rather than a self-made structure. The result is an entertaining item that rides the wave of Go Lala Go! 杜拉拉升职记 (2010) and its ilk while managing to give acting space to its cast and avoiding technical slickness as an end in itself.

The 2010 play by Ha Zhichao 哈智超 – the first in which Emperor Group’s China arm took a stake – got attention at the time for being the first to deal with the Mainland phenomenum of the “hidden marriage” 隐婚, in which couples feign singledom to go after higher-paid jobs. Though the film (which Ha co-wrote) does brush with this theme at the start, it’s pretty soon swept under the carpet in favour of a straight rom-com of sexual misunderstandings. More notably, the film reverses the gender dynamics of the play, in which it was the wife who went after the high-paying job and found herself preyed upon by a seemingly timid male boss. In the event, this switch brings an added comic frisson, with the husband playing meek assistant to a hard-nosed, taekwondo-practising female boss, nicely under-played by Liu (not a natural comic actress) in a performance that largely avoids bitch-boss grandstanding.

Chen is one of the few Hong Kong actors who could pull off the part without resorting to high camp or over-acting and his performance and character, like Liu’s, grow in the second half. In her first leading role, Mainland actress Bai Bing 白冰, as the wife, holds her own against Chen and Liu, with a strong screen presence and comic lightness. As a whole, the movie never reaches very far down, and is at pains to stay within the genre’s conventions, but as a gentle rather than aggressively modern rom-com it’s an above-average ride for 100 minutes.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Forbidden City Film (CN), Emperor Entertainment Group (China) (CN), Fuji Television Network (JP). Produced by Emperor Entertainment Group (China) (CN).

Script: Ha Zhichao, Ru Xiaoguo. Play: Ha Zhichao (2010). Photography: Feng Yuanwen [Edmond Fung]. Editing: Li Dongquan [Wenders Li]. Music: Deng Zhiwei, Zhuang Dongxin. Production design: He Jianxiong [Cyrus Ho]. Art direction: Lu Wenhua. Costumes: Zhang Fangdi, Xu Haiyun, Li Xinyang. Sound: Li Tao, Zhu Hang.

Cast: Chen Yixun [Eason Chan] (Cui Minguo/Mike), Liu Ruoying [René Liu] (Mandy), Bai Bing (Zhang Jingyi/Jenny, Cui Minguo’s wife), Yu Chengqing (Tony, Cui Minguo’s friend), Qin Lan (Ru Xiaoguo, Zhang Jingyi’s friend), Lin Yilun (Lun, actor), Bai Long (Yamamoto), Chen Hao (David, deputy business manager), Mo Xiaoqi (Amanda), Shi Tianshuo (perfume expert), Gao Jie (Tracy, Mandy’s assistant), Da Yong (DJ), Yang Yizhong, Li Yi (barmen), Liu Yanxi (Yuanyuan), Wang Xue (mobile-phone saleswoman), Zhang Qian (receptionist), Zhang Tong (Fatty), Qi Qian (Linda), Yu Yang (Mimi), Li Jingyi (Sisi), Liu Jingyi (clerk), Wang Ziqi (young Yamamoto), Sha Hui (young Yamamoto’s girlfriend), Dong Feifei (Han Na), Guo Peng, Li Xinyang (job applicants), Cui Wenyu (divorce clerk).

Release: China, 8 Apr 2011; Japan, 27 Apr 2012 (DVD only).

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 9 Dec 2011.)