Shining for One Thing
一闪一闪亮星星
China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.
Directors: Chen Xiaoming 陈小明, Zhang Pan 张攀.
Rating: 4/10.
Good-looking but nonsensical teenage romantic fantasy spun off of a web drama with the same leads and directors.
STORY
Nanchuan city, Jiangdong province, 8 Jun 2010. On the final day of the gaokao (university entrance exam), high-school student Zhang Wansen (Qu Chuxiao) finds that all the tickets for the Moonshot concert on 25 Jun – celebrating the Apollo 11 mission to land humans on the Moon for the first time – have been sold. The ticket seller (Wang Zhaoqing) tells him the final two were just bought by a high-school student across the road; but try as he does to persuade her, she won’t sell them to him. Dreaming of travelling to the Moon one day, and determined to be at the concert, Zhang Wansen gets taken on as a volunteer. One of the other volunteers turns out to be the girl who bought the tickets, Lin Beixing (Zhang Jianing), who says her mother confiscated the tickets. Zhang Wansen, who already knows her name and appears to be secretly in love with her, is much shyer than the outgoing Lin Beixing; but they become friends and finally bond in an old bookshop run by Xie (Tian Zhuangzhuang). (Zhang Wansen and Lin Beixing were briefly friends when both were at Chengguan primary school. But she was transferred before she had a chance to learn his name.) Zhang Wansen keeps wanting to tell her who he is, and also confess his feelings for her, but isn’t confident enough. One day he gets a call from Wang Anzhi (Sha Yi), director of the volunteers, telling him the concert has been cancelled due to a recently reported safety issue. Zhang Wansen tries to call Lin Beixing to find out if she’s also been contacted, but she doesn’t answer his calls or turn up at the bookshop for a week. Then one day he sees her at the bookshop: she says her mother confiscated her mobile phone as her gaokao results were poor and she has to re-sit the exam. Zhang Wansen, whose results were good, offers to help tutor her; she accepts but is just friendly towards him, never romantic. One night he finds her waitressing in a bar, where another night he rescues her from being bullied by a gang of layabouts led by Wu Ren (Niu Chao). Lin Beixing is grateful for Zhang Wansen’s help but tells him not to come to the bar again. (Travelling back to an alternative version of 8 Jun 2010, Zhang Wansen is told by the ticket seller that only two adjacent seats are left for the Moonshot concert. Lin Beixing suddenly arrives wanting a ticket and Zhang Wansen gives up one to her. On the night of the concert he arrives late to find the stadium in flames, and then hears Lin Beixing is among the dead.) (Travelling back to another version of events, after failing to persuade Lin Beixing to sell her tickets and becoming a volunteer in the stadium, Zhang Wansen anonymously reports some irregularities by the builders and the concert is cancelled.) While chatting one night with his best friend Maizi (Jiang Yunlin), a motorcycle mechanic who has been unsuccessfully trying to date Zhang Wansen’s snooty neighbour, Gao Ge (Fu Jing), Maizi is confused by some of the things Zhang Wansen says, as if he’s a different person from the Zhang Wansen he’s always known. Zhang Wansen then realises he hasn’t been returning to the past, but is actually in a parallel universe, which is inhabited by the same people but in which he doesn’t belong.
REVIEW
A high-school love story that ties itself up in knots with time-travel and parallel universes, Shining for One Thing 一闪一闪亮星星 barely makes sense even on its own level but still managed to hawl in a very warm RMB702 million over the New Year. Much of that was due to fans of the identically named online drama series – a 24-parter that was released in Jan 2022 – coming to check out this so-called “cinema version”, directed by the same two first-time film-makers and starring the same four leads. What they found (to the disappointment of many) was a very different product, despite the same lead characters, the same physical setting, and the same shifting in time and space. Unlike the online drama it’s told mostly from the boy’s, rather than the girl’s, point-of-view, as well as being an almost completely different story, with all the time-and-space reveals coming thick and fast in the final 40 minutes. None of that would matter if the script was better constructed and at least half made sense.
The plan to make a cinema spin-off was announced soon after the online series (see left) was released and roughly 18 months later it started shooting in the same location (Xiamen city, Fujian province), from Jul to Sep 2023. Head writer on the online series, Duan Yule 段余乐 (web drama A Love So Beautiful 致我们单纯的小美好, 2017), came on board again, as well as Wang Yichao 王一超; joining them on the writing side were directors Zhang Pan 张攀 and Chen Xiaoming 陈小明, neither of whom took a script credit on the web version. As well as the four main leads, noted Taiwan d.p. Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che] also rejoined the team. Thanks to his atmospheric work, Shining always looks classy, whether in rain-drenched exteriors or shadowy, single-light-source interiors, and whether nostalgic, natural or fantastical in mood.
To judge by the amount of risk-taking in structure and content, both Chen, 33, and Zhang, 32, were the main creative movers this time. Though both of the two leads are more than a decade older than the parts they’re playing, they’re both convincing as 18-year-olds and have a good, natural chemistry. Sichuan-born actor Qu Chuxiao 屈楚萧, 29, has been a growing name during the past few years and did notable work in the otherwise generic youth romance Love Will Tear Us Apart 我要我们在一起 (2021). Here he easily takes over the central role from Jilin-born actress Zhang Jianing 张佳宁, 34, a bright, strong presence whose career, with a couple of notable exceptions (The Struggle of 80’s 80后的独立宣言, 2014), has been entirely on the small screen. Of the two others carried over from the web version, Taiwan-born Jiang Yunlin 蒋昀霖, as our hero’s uneducated pal, packs plenty of character into a diminished part, while Mainland actress-singer Fu Jing 傅菁, 28, as the bolshie student he tries to date, hardly gets a look-in in this version. Veteran director Tian Zhuangzhuang 田壮壮, 71, cameos as the owner of a dusty old bookshop that plays a crucial role in the concocted story. And as well as the bookshop, there’s also a Ferris Wheel, without which no romantic fantasy would be complete.
What the English title means is anyone’s guess. The Chinese one means “Twinkle Twinkle Bright Stars”. A caption at the end of the film informs the audience that “every secret love waiting alone will be echoed in another time and space” 每一场独自等待的暗恋都会在另一个时空里得到回响. So now we know.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Cool Whale Film & TV Cultural Industry Development (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), China Film Creative (CN), Horgos Lian Ray Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), iQiyi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Huayi Brothers Pictures (CN), Beijing Ultra Comedy Culture Communication (CN), Beijing New United Films (CN), Fantawild Pictures (CN), Beijing Free Whale Pictures (CN). Produced by Beijing Cool Whale Film & TV Cultural Industry Development (CN), Qingdao Dayu Film & TV Completion Service (CN).
Script: Zhang Pan, Duan Yule, Wang Yichao, Chen Xiaoming. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: Hou Zhijian. Art direction: Li Tong. Costumes: Cheng Rui. Styling: Gao Wei. Sound: Xiong Yi. Action: Zhang Chao. Visual effects: Zhang Fan (MoreVFX). Executive direction: Gu Rong.
Cast: Qu Chuxiao (Zhang Wansen), Zhang Jianing (Lin Beixing), Fu Jing (Gao Ge), Jiang Yunlin (Maizi), Niu Chao (Wu Ren), Tian Zhuangzhuang (Xie, bookseller), Sha Yi (Wang Anzhi, director of volunteers), Zhu Chaoyi (Cuntou/Buzz Cut), Li Dong (Houzi/Monkey), Tian Yu (Pangzi/Fatty), Zhang Yanbo (young Zhang Wansen), Su Yike (young Lin Beixing), Cui Yi (Zhou Li), Cai Gang (Lin Wei), Yi Zhaobo (Gao Guangming), Wang Zhaoqing (ticket seller).
Release: China, 30 Dec 2023.