I Miss You
被我弄丢的你
China, 2024, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 111 mins.
Director: Han Yan 韩琰.
Rating: 6/10.
Promising odd-couple two-hander is let down by a weak, uninvolving script, and is only sustained by young actress Zhang Jingyi’s performance.
STORY
Qingdao city, northern China, 8 Jun 2010. On the final day of the gaokao (university entrance examination), students Bai Xiaoyu (Tan Jianci) and Wang Jinjin (Zhang Jingyi) bump into each other when he accidentally upsets her desk in the classroom where they’re siting the exam. She is not happy. Unknown to each other, however, they have much in common, having been huge fans of US author Edgar Allan Poe since childhood. Four years later, Bai Xiaoyu, who has graduated from university in design, is diagnosed with congenital retinitis pigmentosa, which could cause him to eventually go blind. At a graduates’ job fair in Beijing, he spots Wang Jinjin working at a travel-agency stand. She agrees to meet later that day at a bar, where they bond over their shared love for Edgar Allan Poe and spend the whole night walking and talking. Next morning Wang Jinjin impulsively invites him to accompany her to her hometown, where her mother, Wang Meilan (Xia Lixin), runs a seafood restaurant. First Year 第1年. Wang Jinjin and Bai Xiaoyu are living together: now 23, she has settled down to become a housewife, while Bai Xiaoyu has a job in a design company (though his eye problem is causing mistakes that annoy his boss [Sun Yihong]). One day, much to Wang Jinjin’s annoyance, her mother turns up suddenly in Beijing and, because of her distrust of men since being abandoned by her philandering husband, makes Bai Xiaoyu swear that he’ll take care of her daughter. Fed up with his boss’ carping, Bai Xiaoyu resigns from his job; meanwhile, Wang Jinjin is under pressure at her new job as literary manager at a film studio. At home Bai Xiaoyu finds Wang Jinjin has thrown away the manuscript of her long-planned novel 暗夏 (“Dark Summer”), so he secretly retrieves it. With his friend Cai (Jiang Long) he starts up a gaming company. Second Year 第2年. Both Bai Xiaoyu and Wang Jinjin are busy “following their dreams”. But a chance encounter by Wang Jinjin with an old college friend (and ex-boyfriend) Song Bin (Ren Bin) sparks arguments between her and Bai Xiaoyu. She’s also annoyed that he secretly rescued her manuscript and painstakingly did a special edition of the novel for her – though later the two make up. Third Year 第3年. An eye check reveals that Bai Xiaoyu’s sight is worsening, and a new venture that he and Cai started up – an escape room – is not going too well. Meanwhile, Wang Jinjin is promoted to a producing role at the film studio. While she goes to Hainan island for a three-month shoot, he decides to go to Haicheng with Cai to go into business with a new partner, Sun (Zhang Guangyi). In snowy Beijing they try a last-minute “reconciliation” so as not to be apart for so long, but without success. Fourth Year 第4年. Wang Jinjin is back in Beijing and decides to surprise Bai Xiaoyu in Haicheng, to make up with him, not knowing that he’s already on his way to Beijing to do the same with her.
REVIEW
An odd-couple romantic drama mixed with a “follow your dream” youth picture and disease-of-the-week subplot, I Miss You 被我弄丢的你 is basically a two-hander that relies heavily on its young leads and whose offbeat promise is let down in the second half by a weak, uninvolving script. This second solo feature by Tianjin-born director/d.p. Han Yan 韩琰 is certainly an improvement on his big-screen debut, Dream Breaker 破梦游戏 (2018), and less formulaic than high-school musical The Day We Lit Up the Sky 燃野少年的天空 (2021) co-directed with veteran Zhang Yibai 张一白. But at the end of the day it’s really only memorable for the performance of actress Zhang Jingyi 张婧仪, 25, as the onetime tomboy-turned-film producer Wang Jinjin. At the spring box office it took a surprisingly solid RMB212 million, probably due to the presence of male lead Tan Jianci 檀健次, 33, a popular singer-dancer-TV actor in his first movie since household-pet comedy Adoring 宠爱 (2019).
Tianjin-born Han, 43, is not to be confused with the similarly named but much more experienced director Han Yan 韩延, 40, a Shandong-born writer-director whose films include meet-cute genre-bender First Time 第一次 (2012), offbeat rom-com Go Away Mr. Tumor! 滚蛋吧！肿瘤君 (2015) and hit cancer melodrama A Little Red Flower 送你一朵小红花 (2020). His often offbeat fare has recently included oldies rom-com Love Never Ends 我爱你！ (2023) and odd-couple rom-com Viva la vida 我们一起摇太阳 (2024).
I Miss You – whose Chinese title literally means “You Whom I Lost” – is adapted from a short story, 被我弄丢两次的王斤斤 (“Wang Jinjin, Whom I Lost Twice”), in the collection Love You Forever 我在时间尽头等你, published in 2016 (see cover, left). The original story, only some 10,000 characters long, followed the on-off couple into marriage and raising a family; but the film script, by author Zheng Zhi 郑执 himself, ends before that, reportedly after he and Han decided there was too much material to pack into a feature. Instead, it ends with a slight twist that puts the couple’s decade-long relationship into a broader perspective.
The irony is that the almost-two-hour movie could easily lose 10-15 minutes, mostly from the second half. From the couple’s first “meeting” – when he accidentally upsets her desk on the final day of the gaokao (university entrance examination) – their relationship has been more of an odd-couple one, with Wang Jinjin the tart-tongued doubter and Bai Xiaoyu the impulsive romantic. Only when they discover their shared love for the works of Edgar Allan Poe does the relationship really consolidate, especially on her side – though it’s always haunted by the spectre of his declining eyesight that is likely to lead to eventual blindness. In the first half the screenplay is okay(ish), with the couple’s regular banter and heart-to-hearts holding the film together as they settle down and live together. But in the second half these dialogue sequences start to lose their effectiveness, especially as there’s no new content. And because of the script’s essential shallowness, the characters themselves haven’t developed to a point where they’re really involving or interesting.
It’s a heavy burden for the two young leads to carry. Zhang, who’s shown considerable promise in previous films like Love Will Tear Us Apart 我要我们在一起 (2021), All about My Mother 关于我妈的一切 (2021) and all-through-the-night ensembler Tale of the Night 长沙夜生活 (2023), is well cast in the complex role of the elusive but determined Wang Jinjin. Opposite her, Tan is just okay in a role that requires more than he or the script can deliver. Supporting roles are well played but fleeting, with Sichuan-born jazz musician Liu Lian 刘恋 and veteran Xia Lixin 夏力薪 most notable as Wang Jinjin’s best friend and bossy mother.
The film was shot in Qingdao and Beijing from Jan to May 2023, including reshoots by a partly different crew in the latter. Technically it’s fine, with Taiwan-born ace d.p. Li Pingbin 李屏宾 [Mark Lee] bringing an unforced naturalism to most of the picture that’s unfortunately absent in the very filmy and fantastic finale.
CREDITS
Presented by Zhejiang Films & TV (Group) (CN), Dream Sky Pictures (CN), Horgos Lian Ray Pictures (CN), Shanghai Such A Good Film (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN). Produced by Shanghai Such A Good Film (CN), Zhejiang Films & TV (Group) (CN).
Script: Zheng Zhi. Short story: Zheng Zhi. Photography: Li Pingbin [Mark Lee]; Li Binqiang (Beijing reshoots). Editing: Jiang Yijun, Zhou Xiaolin. Music: He Li. Art direction: Lai Ningru; Li Xinyu, Zhang Yiming (Beijing reshoots). Styling: Zhang Zhaokang, Dong Xiangshuai. Sound: Li Xikai, Wu Jiang; Kong Jun (Beijing reshoots). Visual effects: Huang Yunfeng, Cao Ping, Ma Ding (123 Vision). Executive direction: Lu Xiao.
Cast: Tan Jianci (Bai Xiaoyu), Zhang Jingyi (Wang Jinjin), Jiang Long (Cai), Liu Lian (Zheng Moli), Xia Lixin (Wang Meilan, Wang Jinjin’s mother), Hou Changrong (Bai Xiaoyu’s father), Wu Yufang (Bai Xiaoyu’s mother), Guo Jinglin (blind man), Huang Xiaolei (Lei, actress), Zhang Dada (Xiaojun, arrogant book author), Ren Bin (Song Bin), Sun Rui (Lucy), Xie Yuxuan (Bai Xiaoyu, aged six), Li Yue (Bai Xiaoyu’s father, younger), Wang Xi (Bai Xiaoyu’s mother, younger), Cai Heyan (Wang Jingjing, aged six), Zhang Bojia (Wang Jinjin’s mother, younger), Yuwen Qiushi (Wang Jinjin’s father, younger), Yang Chenxi (Wang Jinjin, aged 10), Dong Zechen (Bai Xiaoyu, aged 10), Huang Yan (Juanmao/Curly), Su Bolin (male interviewee), Sheng Gangshuai (Peter), Zhou Rui (Hong), Sun Yihong (Bai Xiaoyu’s boss), An Hanjin (Jie, book publisher), Jing Jianlin (Liu, film producer), He Han (Xiao, film director), Zhang Guangyi (Sun, new business partner of Bai Xiaoyu and Cai), Lu Xiao (angry film director), Li Xin (Lei’s agent), Shang Hong (locksmith), Zhang Shitong (Xiaoyue), Wang Yucheng (young film director), Chen Meifan (blindness guide).
Release: China, 8 Mar 2024.