The Island
一出好戏
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 134 mins.
Director: Huang Bo 黄渤.
Rating: 5/10.
Castaway fable is an okay directing debut by actor Huang Bo, but rather too ripe and definitely too long.
STORY
A city in China, the present day. The indebted Ma Jin (Huang Bo) and his distant cousin Ma Xiaoxing (Zhang Yixing) dream of winning the lottery and turning their lives around. Ma Jin also fancies his work colleague Wu Shanshan (Shu Qi) but is too shy to approach her. One day the company they work for organises a team-building excursion in an amphibious bus; the driver-cum-tour guide is Wang Genji, aka Dicky (Wang Baoqiang). En route across the sea, their manager Zhang Jiqiang (Yu Hewei) announces that, as the company is about to launch an IPO, everyone will get a salary increase. Ma Jin then gets a message on his phone that he’s won RMB60 million on the lottery and has 90 days to collect the winnings. Suddenly the bus is swept up by a tsunami that also capsizes a container ship; both the bus and the ship end up wrecked and beached on an unnamed island, where they are led to believe by a professor in the group that they’re the only survivors of a global catastrophe caused by a meteorite. Wang Genji, who was previously in the army, assumes leadership of the chaotic group of 30 but things go from bad to worse. Ma Jin argues with Wu Shanshan and then he and Ma Xiaoxing try to escape in a tiny hand-built craft. They fail and are marginalised by the others. Against Wang Genji’s leadership, Zhang Jiqiang organises a rival group that lives with Ma Jin and Ma Xiaoxing in the upturned container ship. After falling out with Zhang Jiqiang, Ma Jin and Ma Xiaoxing leave the ship and live on their own. Then, on the 90th day, when Ma Jin’s lottery ticket expires and the pair are half-dead from starvation, it suddenly rains fish – a sign, Ma Jin believes, of God recompensing him for the lottery loss. After the two rival groups fight over the fish, Ma Jin lectures them on unity and persuades Zhang Jiqiang to let everyone on to the ship, where Ma Xiaoxing gets a hand generator going to provide electricity and lighting. Everyone celebrates with a wild party, during which Ma Jin and Ma Xiaoxing spot a cruise ship passing in the distance. They start, however, to have doubts about the benefits of returning to their previous life. The problem is that Wang Genji also saw the ship.
REVIEW
Twelve years after first attracting big-screen attention as a goofy sidekick in Crazy Stone 疯狂的石头 (2006), Qingdao-born Huang Bo 黄渤 joins the ever-growing list of Mainland actors (usually comic) moving into the director’s chair with his castaway fable The Island 一出好戏. Peopled with familiar types – manic Wang Baoqiang 王宝强 (who himself turned director last year with Buddies in India 大闹天竺) as a manic driver, classy Taiwan actress Shu Qi 舒淇 as the love interest – it’s an okay but flawed debut whose rather obvious allegories about social breakdown and reality vs truth continually battle against the over-cooked performances, plus a running time that’s way too stretched at over two hours. Despite all that, local box-office has been very hunky, hawling in over RMB1.3 billion.
Huang, 44, first had the idea back in 2010 but the screenplay underwent copious revisions before shooting started in 2017. Besides Huang, no less than six writers are also credited, including Chen Kexin 陈可辛 [Peter Chan] collaborators Zhang Ji 张冀 and Guo Junli 郭俊立, Zha Muchun 查慕春 (Reset 逆时营救, 2017; Goldbuster 妖铃铃, 2017), and Cui Siwei 崔斯韦 and Xing Aina 邢爱娜 (Crazy Racer 疯狂的赛车, 2009), most of whom have worked on previous Huang films. The result is an absurdist black comedy that aims to show how, when social norms break down in isolation, power struggles ensue and propaganda can easily sway the masses, with different systems evolving. The problem is that these ideas aren’t developed beyond the obvious, and end up looking more like elaborate decoration of what is, at heart, a simple odd-couple romance between a born loser and the office beauty. With the cast not offering much beyond their usual screen personae, the film’s ambitious superstructure isn’t matched by anything fresh in the acting department.
The leisurely set-up introduces born loser Ma Jin (Huang) who dreams of wining the lottery to get himself out of debt and attract the attention of office beauty Wu Shanshan (Shu). Soon after the staff have set out on a team-building exercise in an amphibious bus, two things happen almost simultaneously: Ma Jin learns he’s won RMB60 million on the lottery and the bus is swept up by a tsunami and dumped on an uninhabited island. Thinking they’re the only survivors of a global catastrophe, the group of 30 (20 men, 10 women) fractures into rival factions – one feral, led by the bus’ hyped-up driver (Wang), and one proto-capitalist, led by the company’s manager (Yu Hewei 于和伟) – between which Ma Jin and his distant cousin (Zhang Yixing 张艺兴) are caught. As time goes by, Ma Jin asserts his leadership as a kind of messianic figure – accompanied, naturally, by the opening of Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra – until it all goes wrong again when a cruise ship sails by one night.
The film isn’t without some inspired moments: the deus ex machina of multi-coloured fish raining down on the starving castaways, a frantic sequence shot upside-down in an already upside-down container ship, and the sylvan blossoming of true love between Ma Jin and Wu Shanshan, with the latter hovering on fairy wings. There’s also the nice idea of the couple realising that their relationship may not last long in the real world, and the subsequent discussion of what is real and what is fake.
But these moments are secondary to all the actorly antics that drive the movie and too often make it look like just a chance for Huang to have a blast with his pals. Though long-haired and bearded this time, Huang springs no surprises on the acting front; as his younger cousin, boybander-actor Zhang, 26, is less metrosexual-looking than usual (KungFu Yoga 功夫瑜伽, 2017) and has some moments of his own when challenging the authority of Huang’s character. Shu oozes her usual effortless class, but her character comes and goes at the script’s convenience; likewise Wang’s, which starts way off the dial and later falls to almost human levels of manic-ness. Bespectacled comedian Wang Xun 王迅 (Kill Me Please 这就是命, 2017) is just his usual goofy self; in contrast, as the company boss who tries to restore the capitalist status quo, TV actor Yu has one of the most developed roles that doesn’t rely on mugging.
Visual effects are entertaining, especially in the tsunami sequence, and art direction and costume design for the upturned ship and the castaways’ primitive existence are finely detailed without becoming pantomimic. As a director, Huang shows no special style, with widescreen photography by Zeng Jian (Mystery 浮城谜事, 2012; Blind Massage 推拿, 2014; Phurbu & Tenzin 西藏天空, 2014) having a realistic edge that helps to ground the fable.
Though it’s in line with an earlier discussion of what is fake and what is reality, there’s a rather pointless – and not very original – plot twist revealed during the end credits. Those still around after the six-minute roll will be rewarded by an amusing scene with Huang’s old pal, comedian-director Xu Zheng 徐峥, as a nosy metro passenger. Other cameos include writer-director Guan Hu 管虎, who gave Huang a big break with his TV movie Mini-Bus 上车，走吧！ (2000), and Crazy Stone director Ning Hao 宁浩. The film’s Chinese title means “A Good Yarn”, in the sense of having fun.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Hanna Pictures (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Spring Net Media Horgos (CN), Horgos Happy Pictures (CN). Produced by Shanghai Hanna Pictures (CN).
Script: Huang Bo, Zhang Ji, Guo Junli, Zha Muchun, Cui Siwei, Xing Aina, Huang Zhanzhong. Photography: Zeng Jian. Re-shoot photography: Song Xiaofei. Music: Hu Xiao’ou, Wang Zhe, Gao Xiaoyang, Li Bin. Sound: Xiao Baohua, Dong Xu, Zhang Jia. Visual effects: Shi Wen, Cai Meng, Wei Ming, Gim Uk, Dong Mingxing, Jiang Wenjun, Zhang Wei (More VFX, Dexter Studios, MOF [Beijing] Pictures Technology, Changkong Image). Executive direction: Xi Zi.
Cast: Huang Bo (Ma Jin), Shu Qi (Wu Shanshan), Wang Baoqiang (Wang Genji/Dicky), Zhang Yixing (Ma Xiaoxing), Yu Hewei (Zhang Jiqiang, manager), Wang Xun (Pan), Li Qinqin (Qi), Li Youlin (Shi, professor), Zhang Lei (Yu), Yang Kaidi (Lucy), Fang Xiaohang (Yang Hong), Liu Yanqing (Zhao Tianlong), Meng Yu (Meng Hui), Wang Qiao (Wang Hong), Dong Liang (Wang Liang), Hao Wenting (Wen Juan), Li Dong (Li Dong), Sun Zhongqiu (Da Qiu), Ma Chao (Li Chao), Li Sirui (Ruiqiu/Rachel), Yuan Ziyun (Ziyun), Wei Jiamei (Meijia), Liu Min (Xiaomin), Zha Meizhu (Meijun), Wu Zhoukai (David), Yamane Kentaro (Da Lei), Zhao Yujie (Zhao Yu), Wang Zun (Dong Ming), Liu Weilong (Long Wei), Feng Shuo (Yang Shuo), Guo Junchen (new work colleague), Hong Yu (Russian expert), Qian Jun (Zhang Jiqiang’s wife), Zhao Chenxi (Zhang Jiqiang’s daughter), Xu Zheng (man in metro), Liang Jing (doctor), Ning Hao (doctor), Guan Hu, Chen Desen [Teddy Chen].
Release: China, 10 Aug 2018.