Color Me Love
爱出色
China/Hong Kong, 2010, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins.
Director: Chen Yili 陈奕利 [Alexi Tan].
Rating: 5/10.
Glossy rom-com set in Beijing’s fashion scene is let down by an empty script and weak direction.
STORY
Beijing, the present day. University graduate Wang Xiaofei (Yao Chen), from Anxi, Fujian province, gets a job as a deputy fashion editor at Flair magazine, thanks to editor-in-chief Zoe (Chen Chong) being a USC classmate of Wang Xiaofei’s aunt. Wang Xiaofei’s down-to-earth attitude immediately starts her off on the wrong foot in the vain and temperamental fashion world: during a photo shoot for arrogant, womanising painter Luan Yihong (Liu Ye), she pours a bucket of paint over him and subsequently writes a cutting article. Zoe reprimands her but recognises her talent and straightforward common sense. Wang Xiaofei and Luan Yihong later bump into each other and make up, gradually becoming more than just friends. However, when Wang Xiaofei learns that Luan Yihong was once married to super-model Ke Min (Mo Xiaoqi), who slit her wrists when they broke up three years ago, she puts a halt to her burgeoning relationship with him. But Luan Yihong, who’s finally able to paint again now he’s found a new muse, won’t give up so easily.
REVIEW
The perils of cinema’s most difficult genre, the romantic comedy, are achingly apparent in Color Me Love 爱出色, which has a great (though hardly original) opening half-hour and gradually runs off the rails after that. Set, like the previous movie of actress Yao Chen 姚晨, Love in Cosmo 摇摆de婚约 (2010), in the cafe latte world of Beijing’s fashion publishing, it’s loaded with brand names and cameos (from actresses Gao Yuanyuan 高圆圆 and Yu Feihong 俞飞鸿 through super-model Lv Yan 吕燕 to trendy painter Yue Minjun 岳敏君), and like Go Lala Go! 杜拉拉升职记 (2010) and many other recent rom-coms takes an ironic look at New China’s success-orientated work ethic. But unlike Cosmo and Lala, it seems to think that glossy photography is a substitute for a decent script, and that the rom-com genre is just a matter of pushing a name cast through a series of sit-commy situations.
The actors themselves can’t be faulted. Currently China’s most gifted light comedienne, Yao consistently elevates so-so material in one scene after another – her opening scene with a Rubik Cube and a young kid is a gem – and shows good romantic/comic chemistry with Liu Ye 刘烨 (City of Life and Death 南京！南京！, 2009), here given some chances to show more than his moody side. Veteran Chen Chong 陈冲 [Joan Chen] is also fine as a sympathetic (rather than stereotypically bitchy) editor-in-chief, and Zhu Hong 朱虹 (Crazy in Love 意乱情迷, 2007) teams well with Yao as a colleague. Production values are also up to scratch, with talented d.p. Cao Yu 曹郁 (City of Life and Death) behind the camera, restrainedly glamorous costume design by New York-based Jennifer Hitzges, and nimble editing by Xiao Yang 小洋 (The Message 风声, 2009).
Instead, the fault lies wholly at the hands of writer Ning Caishen 宁财神 and director Chen Yili 陈奕利 [Alexi Tan]. The success of Ning’s 2006 TV drama series My Own Swordsman 武林外传 helped launch him (and coincidentally, Yao) to fame but he’s since shown little aptitude for feature films (Kung Fu Hip Hop 精武门, 2008; Just Call Me Nobody 大笑江湖, 2010). In Color he seems to have no idea how to develop either the characters or material after the first act: the film essentially ends at the 70-minute point, with the reunion of Yao and Liu’s characters, but then runs another half-hour with a series of manufactured events. Manila-born Chen, 42, a Taiwan national who was educated in London and New York, and started as a fashion photographer and commercials director, has an eye for visual composition but shows no grasp of structure or timing. Though his first feature, period action-drama Blood Brothers 天堂口 (2007), also starring Liu, got a harder ride from critics and audiences than it deserved, Color is in most respects a step backwards.
CREDITS
Presented by Tianjin North Film Group (CN), Angel Wings Entertainment (CN), Dao Culture Investment (CN), Beijing Fesco Prospect Culture Development (CN), Xinrui Brothers Media & Culture (CN), Beijing Sun Shine (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN). Produced by Angel Wings Entertainment (CN), Lion Rock Entertainment (HK).
Script: Ning Caishen. Photography: Cao Yu. Editing: Xiao Yang. Music: Hatori Miho. Title song: Li Jian. Vocal: Li Jian. Art direction: Ma Guangrong [Horace Ma]. Costume design: Jennifer Hitzges. Stylist: Liu Lu. Sound: Zhu Xiaojia. Visual effects: Xiao Yang.
Cast: Liu Ye (Luan Yihong), Yao Chen (Wang Xiaofei), Mo Xiaoqi (Ke Min/Coco, Luan Yihong’s ex-wife), Zhu Hong (Bao Li/Polly), Wang Xi (Luan Yihong’s manager), Wang Shengde [Russell Wong] (Zoe’s ex-husband), Chen Chong [Joan Chen] (Zoe, editor-in-chief), Zhu Jie (Anqi), Gao Yuanyuan, Hong Huang, Su Mang, Yu Feihong, Peter Loehr, Erik Siao, Zhang Zhishen [Peter Cheung], Lv Yan, Yue Minjun (themselves), Sheng Jun (Stella, Zoe’s secretary), Sun Jian (Xiaoxin), Xiao Yuyu (journalist), Wang Xinru (Kaye), Wang Shuyao (magazine publisher’s receptionist), Xiong Junhao (Gino), Wang Haoran (property agent), Pu Hongji (boy eating burger), Lu Yan (strange nurse), Chen Si (film-in-film director), Li Shiliu (assistant director), Yang Luozi (journalist), Tang Guoguo (fat girl), Huang Yu (Li Fugui).
Release: China, 9 Nov 2010; Hong Kong, tba.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 5 Jan 2011.)