Every Dog Has Its Day
马腾你别走
China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 123 mins.
Director: Yue Yang 岳洋.
Rating: 6/10.
Offbeat buddy movie with a crusty retiree and a duplicitous carer has nice moments but doesn’t come off as a light comedy about living and (assisted) dying.
STORY
Qingdao city, northern China, Feb 2024. Ma Teng (Lin Gengxin), 37, a serial layabout and debtor with no regular job, is chased by a couple to whom he’s owed RMB100,000 for the past five years when they spot him on the beach. He hides out in a seafront house and is mistaken for an applicant for the job of carer to retired steelworker Lin Qingxiang (Li Youbin), 71. He and two other qualified carers are interviewed by Lin Qingxiang’s longtime food deliverer, Xiaoling (Li Xueqin); but despite Ma Teng’s dubious behaviour, Lin Qingxiang takes a liking to him. Ma Teng has had dozens of jobs, from dog walker to shop assistant, and been sacked from all of them; but he manages to pass his probation period and become Lin Qingxiang’s carer, largely because he puts up with the old man’s fussiness that has put off so many carers in the past. In early March Lin attends the fineral ceremony of an old friend, Sun Zheng, which hits him hard emotionally. Meanwhile, Ma Teng is still being nagged by his ex-wife, Zhou Yun (Song Qian), for legal custody of their daughter Ma Shan (Chen Halin), who lives with her mother but as part of the divorce was legally assigned to Ma Teng. Ma Shan, who’s now in her final year at primary school, is very attached to her father and is something of a chip off his block; when she’s finished with basic schooling in three years’ time, she wants to study music in the US and Zhou Yun asks Ma Teng to fund half of the expense, i.e. RMB500,000. Cavalierly he agrees. Meanwhile, Lin Qingxiang, depressed over his old friend’s death and the onset of early Parkinson’s Disease, asks Ma Teng to help him die, and promises him money as well. Ma Teng initially laughs it off but then asks for RMB500,000 – to which Lin Qingxiang agrees. Ma Teng initially comes up with various ways for him to commit suicide but none really work. Ma Teng then proposes a fabulous overland journey all the way to Switzerland, where euthanasia is legal. Total cost of the whole expedition: RMB800,000. In fact, Ma Teng has no intention of making such a journey, but he also doesn’t know that Lin Qingxiang has been keeping note of all the money being siphoned off of him.
REVIEW
A light comedy about living and dying – in a dignified way – Every Dog Has Its Day 马腾你别走 is passable enough entertainment but hardly compulsive viewing, partly because it takes way too much time to get to the point and at two hours is over-long by at least 20 minutes. A film of nice moments and some memorable performances rather than a single, sustained piece of writing, it suffers from a lack of focus that’s not mitigated by strong enough chemistry between its two lead characters – a grouchy, retired steel worker and his charlatan, layabout carer who’s charged with finding him a nice way to die. Box office for this (very) offbeat buddy movie was a feeble RMB14.5 million, rather less than it deserved.
Dog marked the directing debut of Yue Yang 岳洋, 44, who as president and co-founder (in 2008) of Beijing-based media company MaxTimes Cultural Development 北京麦特文化发展有限公司 has since 2011 taken a variety of producer roles on films and TVDs co-financed by MaxTimes. Recent successes, all in the field of light character comedy, include B for Busy 爱情神话 (2021), Gold or Shit 走走停停 (2024), Upstream 逆行人生 (2024) and The Return of the Lame Hero 毕正明的证明 (2025). Reportedly, Yue turned to directing to fulfil the last wish of her friend Shao Yan 少言 (the homophonous pen name of Shao Yan 邵岩), who sketched the original story and script before dying from melanoma on 20 Mar 2021, not yet 40. On the movie itself, the story is co-credited to film critic and scriptwriter Zhang Dahai 张大海, and the script to Liu Qian 刘倩, who teaches film theory and practice at Chengdu University. It’s Liu’s second screenplay credit: she also co-wrote the light drama So Long for Love 再见，李可乐 (2023), another MaxTimes production.
Wisely, Yue surrounded herself with an experienced crew for her directing debut, including veteran Taiwan d.p. Li Pingbin [Mark Lee] 李屏宾, editor Tu Yiran 屠亦然, stylist Fu Lei 付雷 and executive director Xi Jialin 席加林, as well as art director Lu Wei 鲁伟 and action director Du Zihao 杜自豪. The whole film consistently looks good, with bright, sunny photography around the northern coastal city of Qingdao and some especially striking visuals in the final 20 minutes around Baotou city, Inner Mongolia province, as the two men finally set out on their journey. The cast also includes some strong performances, particularly Li Xueqin 李雪琴 as the old man’s long-suffering but resilient food deliverer, Song Qian 宋茜 as Ma Teng’s conventional but persistent ex-wife, and not least the (then) 11-year-old Chen Halin 陈哈琳 (Nice View 奇迹 笨小孩, 2022; Upstream) as his spunky young daughter who’s quite a chip off the old block. Cameos by comedienne Yan Ni 闫妮 (as a notary), Wang Chuanjun 王传君 (as an eccentric old pal of Ma Teng) and comedian/director Yi Xiaoxing 易小星 as a harrassed primary-school teacher liven things up along the way.
Instead, the film’s main weaknesses almost all derive from the screenplay and the two main performances. As the layabout-turned-carer Ma Teng, Shenyang-born Lin Gengxin 林更新, 38, who rose to fame in the schooldays romance My Old Classmate (2014) and then made a string of costume dramas before becoming a rarer screen presence in recent years, is best known for light, jokey roles. He certainly puts over those aspects of Ma Teng’s personality but is weak at suggesting his darker, more manipulative side and never seems to carry a movie in which he’s supposedly the lead character. Changchun-born Li Youbin 李幼斌, 68, who’s mostly been associated with military movies (The Bugle from Gutian 古田军号, 2019), draws a far stronger and more convincing character as the crusty old retiree with a deeply hidden soft spot – to a point where the character could have carried a whole film without Ma Teng.
The problem is that the script never comes up with a really convincing reason for him hiring Ma Teng (who’s clearly unsuitable for the job) and then putting up with him when he knows Ma Teng is secretly planning to fleece him. The actors (paired for the first time) do an okay job but establish no special chemistry – essential in a movie that depends on it. They also don’t get much help from the screenplay, which takes almost half-an-hour to reveal it’s really about assisted dying and then asks the audience to believe that Ma Teng’s scam may eventually lead to his “victim” re-embracing life. It’s an interesting (if somewhat predictable) idea that needs more focused, less episodic writing than it gets here.
The film started shooting in May 2025. Its English title has little actual connection with the film, whose Chinese title translates as “Ma Teng, Don’t Go”, referring to the old retiree’s increasing dependence on his duplicitous carer. For the record, the Chinese title has an exclamation mark on posters but not in the actual film.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing MaxTimes Cultural Development (CN), Bejing Super Lion Culture Group (CN), Shanghai Hi Captain Pictures (CN), Shanghai Film Group (CN), Jiangxi Film Group (CN), Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Beijing MaxTimes Cultural Development (CN).
Script: Shao Yan, Liu Qian. Story: Shao Yan, Zhang Dahai. Photography: Li Pingbin [Mark Lee]. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Huang Yixin. Art direction: Lu Wei, Yan Dong. Costumes: Tian Ye. Styling: Fu Lei. Sound: Mao Xiaolei, Zhao Nan, He Wei. Action: Du Zihao. Visual effects: Shi Ye. Executive direction: Xi Jialin.
Cast: Lin Gengxin (Ma Teng), Li Youbin (Lin Qingxiang), Song Qian (Zhou Yun, Ma Teng’s ex-wife), Wang Yanlin (Lin Qin, Lin Qingxiang’s son), Li Xueqin (Xiaoling), Chen Halin (Ma Shan, Ma Teng’s daughter), Feng Lei (Zhuang), Pan Binlong (Zhang), Li Ping (Cai, female carer at interview), Shi Lanya (Shi, carer company manageress), Zhou Yutong (Yue Yangyang, funela MC), Yue Hong (Meiling), He Zhengjun (Kang Ping, physician), Yan Ni (Yang Zhuoning, notary), Liu Jun (Li Jin, psychiatrist), Yi Xiaoxing (Lei Zehua, teacher), Ren Bin (Yue Hai, doctor in hallway), Wang Chuanjun (Leo Chen), Zhou Qing (Zhou, female creditor), Tao Ran (Lele’s mother), Wang Mingxuan (Lele).
Premiere: China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival (Closing Film), Xiamen, 14 Nov 2025.
Release: China, 16 Jan 2026.