Make Up

命运化妆师

Taiwan, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.

Director: Lian Yiqi 连奕琦.

Rating: 6/10.

A mystery-drama that’s different from the Taiwan norm, and with terrific playing by actress Xie Xinying.

STORY

Taiwan, the present day. Wu Minxiu (Xie Xinying) is a mortuary beautician, preparing bodies to look their best for funerals. One day the body of a woman who has suicided with sleeping pills is brought in, and Wu Minxiu recognises her as Chen Ting (Sui Tang), her music teacher at senior high school in Taizhong, with whom she had a secret love affair at the age of 17. Chen Ting’s husband, psychologist Nie Chengfu (Wu Zhongtian), asks Wu Minxiu if they can meet so she can tell him something about his wife’s past, of which he knows nothing. Wu Minxiu takes him to the old high school. Meanwhile, Nie Chengfu is being followed by police detective Guo Yongming (Zhang Ruijia), who suspects Nie Chengfu may have murdered his wife; Guo Yongming has also seduced Nie Chengfu’s secretary Tina (Tang Qinghui) to find out more information about him. Guo Yongming tells Wu Minxiu that Zhou (Bu Xueliang), the coroner on the case, was an old army friend of Nie Chengfu and so could have faked his report. He asks her to spend more time with Nie Chengfu to find out the truth.

REVIEW

This first feature by Lian Yiqi 连奕琦, assistant director on the box-office hit Cape No. 7 海角七号 (Wei Desheng 魏德圣, 2008), takes several genre staples and bends them in interesting ways: a single woman (but single through choice) in a solitary job (but what a job: a mortuary beautician), an idealised love story (but between two women), a detective hunting a suspect (but using very unconventional methods), and a whodunit that ends up not being a whodunit at all. The elements don’t all cohere but, especially in its first hour, the film keeps the audience on its toes in clever ways.

The other reason for watching Make Up 命运化妆师 is the terrific lead performance of actress Xie Xinying 谢欣颖, almost unrecognisable behind severe glasses (or even as a teen-in-love during the flashbacks) from her more extrovert roles in One Day 有一天 (2009) and Honey PuPu 消失打看 (2011). Make Up has none of those films’ pretensions, and gives Xie the most substantial role of her career so far – to which the actress-model, now 26, rises with aplomb. She’s especially good as the quiet but lonely mortuary worker Wu Minxiu, communing with her corpses in early scenes, giving a discreet brush-off to a co-worker who fancies her, and now brought face to face with the consequences of a decision taken years earlier. But Xie’s transformation in flashbacks into the teenage Wu Minxiu is equally remarkable and, though many of her scenes with her lover/teacher are bathed in an idealised light, the naturalness of her playing with Sui Tang 随堂 (a model making a strong movie debut) is notable. It’s a relationship that’s crucial to the film’s modern-day drama, and Lian, writer Yu Shangmin 于尚民 and the two actresses get it just right: two people in love, with no distracting agonising over the fact they’re both women.

The “untouchable” nature of Wu Minxiu’s job as a mortuary beautician was memorably dealt with, for the first time in Taiwan, in the TV drama Ballad of a Female Undertaker 像我这样的一个女子 (Zhang Yichen 张乙宸, 1985) – part of the Story Time 说故事的时间 series produced by Zhang Aijia 张艾嘉 [Sylvia Chang] for China Television. Twenty-five years on, it still works as an “outsider” metaphor, as well as fitting naturally into the plot, and, with the main character having no personal life of her own, writer Yu has even constructed sub-plots around the workplace (a jealous rival cosmetologist, a young assistant) to keep that part of the movie alive.

Make Up is at its best in its first half, sketching mood and atmosphere; it’s less successful in the second half as the dramatic elements start to come together and the film feels obliged to come up with a dramatic finish. The fact that everyone in the cast is involved in some way with everyone else – even the detective has a personal reason to dislike his chief suspect – is clever and shows the script has been well worked through. But the final section is much more conventional – and the resolution, like the cardboard performance by Wu Zhongtian [Matt Wu] 吴中天 as the suspected husband, is weak. Overall, however, Make Up has the feel of a director trying to do something fresh within the often predictable limits of Taiwan cinema – and succeeding a lot of the time.

CREDITS

Presented by Arrow Cinematic Group (TW). Produced by Arrow Cinematic Group (TW), JA Production (TW).

Script: Yu Shangmin. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Gu Xiaoyun. Editing consultation: Liao Qingsong. Music: Zheng Weijie. Production design: Lin Menger. Costume design: Yu Yin. Sound: Du Duzhi. Action: Cai Jiayuan.

Cast: Xie Xinying (Wu Minxiu), Sui Tang (Chen Ting), Wu Zhongtian [Matt Wu] (Nie Chengfu, Chen Ting’s husband), Zhang Ruijia (Guo Yongming, detective), Bu Xueliang (Zhou), Zhang Shaohuai (Xiao Zhiren, Wu Minxiu’s colleague), Zeng Yunrou (Xiaoqing, Wu Minxiu’s assistant), Yang Qi (Ye Jing, Wu Minxiu’s rival), Wang Hong (Li), Tang Qinghui (Tina, Nie Chengfu’s secretary), Wu Bilian (Qiu), Xie Qiongyao (Wu Minxiu’s mother).

Premiere: Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival, Taipei (opening film), 1 Apr 2011.

Release: Taiwan, 24 Jun 2011.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 9 Aug 2011.)