Flaming Cloud
三贵情史
China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 106 mins.
Director: Liu Siyi 刘斯逸.
Rating: 6/10.
Mainland actress Yao Chen is the main delight in this post-modern fairytale that looks fabulous but is let down by a poorly constructed script.
STORY
Once upon a time… In a house somewhere above the clouds, there is a casino where dead mortals while away the time gambling, drinking and listening to music. One day a young woman (Xiang Xiejing) enters and tells the boss (Shi Liang) she wants to place a wager that true love does exist. No one is willing to accept her bet until the young pianist (Zheng Yunlong) says he will – but only on condition that the wager has to be a flaming cloud 火烧云 – in other words, the death of all the gods and goddesses there. In an old book they find true love defined as a power that that can break curses, so it’s agreed that one side should randomly draw a curse while the other side chooses a baby on which to place it. If the curse is broken, then true love has been proved to exist. Five years later, down among the mortals, young Wang Sangui (Zheng Qianli) is cared for by his grandmother (Zhu Huaixu) as his parents are still missing. In an abandoned park he meets a young girl, Tingting (Liu Siyan), who’s occupying his favourite spot; they become friends but when they almost share a kiss Tingting falls into the water, as the curse placed on Wang Sangui stipulates that anyone he kisses will fall into a deep sleep. Tingting’s father (Sun Yimu) takes her home to White Stone town and Wang Sangui develops a local reputation as a freak. After his grandmother dies, he hops on a train to seek pastures new; but en route he hears a song coming from a small town and gets off. The town is White Stone, and Wang Sangui grows up there, cutting people’s hair in the park like his grandmother once did. Now a young adult (Hu Xianxu), he accidentally comes across what he believes is Tingting’s house, and climbs up into her bedroom and kisses her. Later he’s accosted in the street by a young woman, Yuyu (Zhou Ye), who says she just dreamed about him as her prince. He runs away but she finds him, insists she is his princess, and says she’ll find a way to break the curse on him. Yuyu tries various solutions without success; she then has one more idea – to get help from the witch (Yao Chen) who first taught her how to become a princess. But the witch tells Yuyu she can’t help her, as Wang Sangui is not her true prince. However, Wang Sangui discovers that the “witch” is, in fact, a once famous singer, Xu Yuexia, who retired and turned to drink when her composer boyfriend (Zheng Yunlong) died. The two become friends, and Xu Yuexia enjoys the young Wan Sangui’s company. But when he goes looking for his true love, the adult Tingting (Zhou Yiran), he can’t find her, and ends up kidnapped and taken to a workhouse.
REVIEW
Mainland actress Yao Chen 姚晨, who’s been too rarely seen on the big screen recently, is both the main delight and the main problem in Flaming Cloud 三贵情史, a kind of post-modern fairytale about true love with a beautiful princess, scary witch, brave knight and cursed boy. This first feature by writer-director Liu Siyi 刘斯逸, who studied radio and TV directing at Shanghai’s Tongji university prior to her graduating from Vancouver’s film school in 2016, is never lacking in ambition. On a technical level it’s highly crafted – from the glossy, textured photography through the beautiful score and associated songs to the seamless editing – but structurally the script by Liu and her collaborator Qiu Yujie 邱玉洁 (who co-wrote The Shadow Play 风中有朵雨做的云, 2018, and The Oldtown Girls 兔子暴力, 2020, as well as her own directing debut, online horror The Skin 夺皮, 2020) is a mess.
Despite several inventive ideas (including visualising Heaven as some kind of casino-cum-club in the sky, with its members commenting on the action), the film’s various characters and strands are never woven into a single dramatic unit. Most conspicuously, Yao’s role as a singer-turned-lush completely takes over the central half-hour before suddenly disappearing; and the finale, which seems to come from another movie, is stitched on just to provide some action. Shot during Jan to Mar 2021 in and around Xiamen, Fujian province, it crashed on release this autumn, taking a tiny RMB4.8 million.
Since the promising but poorly developed drama Send Me to the Clouds 送我上青云 (2019), Yao, 44, has been absent in leading roles on the big screen, seemingly more interested in building a role as a producer via her company Bad Rabbit Pictures. So far, her three excursions as creative producer 监制 (Send Me to the Clouds; The Cord of Life 脐带, 2022; Flaming Cloud) have all, alas, flopped at the box office; the good news is that she has several movies planned or awaiting release, and at least a meaty role in Flaming Cloud that can be savoured on its own terms. Yao’s experience in comedy allows her to turn the role of the “witch”, living into a dusty old dark house, into a deliciously self-mocking part when she’s revealed actually to be a onetime famous singer who suddenly retired and turned to drink. Flashbacks show her in her prime, like some 1920s/1930s chanteuse, while in the present she takes a liking to the young, cursed Wang Sangui whom she appears to see as a young substitute for her dead lover. However, before the script can really get into the nitty-gritty of this relationship – rather germane to a film whose title translates as “Sangui’s Love History” – it seems to suddenly chicken out: Yao’s character disappears, and the whole movie sinks back a few notches.
Along with veteran director Li Shaohong 李少红, who was co-creative producer, Yao reportedly gave much helpful advice to Liu during production – though none of it seems to have corrected the script’s central imbalance. Hu Xianxu 胡先煦, who was good in the feuding siblings comedy Hi Brother 二哥来了怎么办 (2021), is okay as the accursed Wang Sangui but is comprehensibly out-acted by Zhou Ye 周也 (the female lead in youth romance Yesterday Once More 倒数说爱你, 2023; girlfriend in No More Bets 孤注一掷, 2023), as a lively young woman who dreams of being a fairytale princess. As Wang Sangui’s actual love, dancer-turned-actress Zhou Yiran 周依然, like Hu, is okay but not a gripping screen presence.
On a technical level, the film oozes invention and class, starting with the uncategorisable look that’s somewhere between a Brothers Grimm fairytale populated by Chinese, a 1970s youth drama, a Charles Dickens workhouse drama, and a Gothic horror. The sumptuous widescreen imagery by German d.p. Florian Zinke 陆一帆 (Double Xposure 二次曝光, 2012; Forever Young 怒放之青春再见, 2014; Baby 宝贝儿, 2018) is a new high in his career, and the editing, led by top cutter Zhang Yifan 张一凡, is silkily smooth. More notable, even than the art direction and styling, is the almost wall-to-wall music/song score by Ding Wei 丁薇, a rare example of music in a Mainland film that’s a real asset, and with the songs woven into the whole fabric rather than just used for montages.
CREDITS
Presented by Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Beijing Fun Gang Films (CN), Shanghai Yunfeng Cultural Media (CN), Beijing Saren Culture Media (CN), Bad Rabbit (Shanghai) Pictures (CN). Produced by Fun Gang Film Industry (Xiamen) (CN).
Script: Qiu Yujie, Liu Siyi. Photography: Florian Zinke. Second-unit photography: Yan Daiyao. Editing: Zhang Yifan, Zhang Yunjie, Liu Dan. Music: Ding Wei, Huang Zhou, Fu Wenjie, Feng Qing. Art direction: Zhang Fengyi. Styling: Yu Xiaoxi. Sound: Wu Jiang, Mao Shuo. Action: Su Hang. Visual effects: Peng Ke, Liu Chongya (Feel Fine). Executive direction: Zhuang Ran.
Cast: Hu Xianxu (Wang Sangui), Yao Chen (Xu Yuexia/witch), Zhou Ye (Yuyu), Zhou Yiran (Tingting), Zheng Yunlong (Feng, pianist in casino/Xu Yuexia’s composer boyfriend), Xiang Xiejing (goddess in casino), Qin Xue (Tingting’s stepmother), Sun Yimu (Tingting’s father), Shi Liang (casino boss), Zong Juntao (Xu Yuexia’s music agent), Zheng Qianli (young Wang Sangui), Liu Siyan (young Tingting), Shang Hong (narrator), Liang Zhengqun (male singer in casino), Fang Erxi (female singer in casino), Zhu Huaixu (Wang Sangui’s grandmother), Yao Yitian (Auntie He), Yang Lan (Auntie Lan), Dai Wenjun (Auntie Ding), Yang Xiting (Auntie Li), Wang Meimei (Auntie Wang), Xin Yao (Auntie Ice Cream).
Premiere: New York Asian Film Festival, 29 Jul 2023.
Release: China, 9 Sep 2023.