World’s Greatest Dad
二手杰作
China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 113 mins.
Director: Wang Zizhao 王子昭.
Associate director: Li Ji 李季.
Rating: 7/10.
A sardonic black comedy about the hollowness of fame is classily written and played, led by Yu Hewei as the wannabe who’s just an average high-school teacher.
STORY
A city somewhere in China, the present day. At a ceremony for which film director Ning Hao and actor/director Xu Zheng have been invited as celebrity presenters, senior high school teacher Ma Yinbo (Yu Hewei), 50, rushes onstage to grab the award for Man of the Moment and makes a breathless acceptance speech during which the microphone keeps sliding down. (A month earlier, Ma Yinbo had been told by the school’s headmaster [Lv Xing] that his 17-year-old son, Ma Mo [Guo Qilin], who was mocked and bullied by his fellow pupils, was somewhat “slow-witted” – something Ma Yinbo was well aware of. Ma Mo had also been accused by a female classmate, Xu Sisi [Xu Enyi], of stalking her and taking photos of her in class. In his spare time Ma Yinbo was a wannabe writer who had been trying to get his Collected Works published for years but had been turned down by publisher after publisher. To assuage his ego, his wife, Pan Dongni [Ni Hongjie, had cooked him a 50th birthday dinner. Meanwhile, Ma Mo had followed Xu Sisi back to her school dormitory and climbed up to take a picture through the bedroom window. Unfortunately he had lost his grip and fallen into the courtyard, from where he was taken, unconscious, to hospital. The neurospecialist (Lin Yiting) had said that, if Ma Mo didn’t wake up within three months, he would be declared a vegetable, which would result in high medical bills. The case had generated much speculation and gossip. After he found pictures of Xu Sisi on Ma Mo’s phone, Ma Yinbo, realising the truth, had composed an elaborate note on behalf of his son, disguising the whole affair as a noble suicide attempt. At school, Ma Yinbo had distributed copies of the note, which became widely admired for literary qualities that nobody had thought Ma Mo ever had. The headmaster had to decide whether Ma Mo was guilty of immoral behaviour or was genuinely suicidal. Another teacher, Ji [Zhang Zixian], who’d never really liked Ma Yinbo but had seen the way things were going, had suggested the latter. Also, Ji’s students had collectively asked the headmaster for permission to visit Ma Mo in hospital and apologise for not taking him seriously. Ma Yinbo had started using portions of his rejected manuscripts and passing them off as Ma Mo’s secret writings. These had developed a cult following – encouraged by Xu Sisi, to gain attention – and finally the publisher [Feng Lei] who had always rejected Ma Yinbo’s manuscripts had come begging to publish Ma Mo’s essays. Meanwhile, the school’s security guard-cum-gatekeeper, Sha [Ding Wenbo], who had always posted and received back Ma Yinbo’s manuscripts over the years, had suspected the truth; but Ma Yinbo claimed he had stolen his own son’s writings because of a lack of time to write anything himself. The book had become a huge success, selling over 1 million copies.) At the ceremony, Ma Yinbo is cut off by a live broadcast from the hospital, where the headmaster and fellow students present Ma Mo with the actual award. Xu Sisi plants a quick kiss on Ma Mo’s face and suddenly Ma Mo wakes up. Ma Yinbo panics and rushes to the hospital. In secret he tells Ma Mo the whole truth, and Ma Mo accepts it. But his mother insists on him going back to school, not hiding away at home, so he can try to be a normal student. However, Ma Mo has no ambitions to write, and fails to live up to Xu Sisi’s expectations. When Ma Yinbo confesses to the publisher that the writings were by him, not by Ma Mo, the publisher refuses to believe it. So Ma Yinbo decides to hire a team and publish his own writings himself.
REVIEW
A sardonic black comedy about the hollowness and impermanence of fame, World’s Greatest Dad 二手杰作 is classily written and played, and only let down by a running time that could profitably lose 10-15 minutes in its second half. The film takes well-aimed potshots at academia, the media and the gullible, social media-led public as it follows a jobbing high-school teacher who’d always wanted to be respected as a writer but only gets reflected glory when he passes off his rejected scribblings as the work of his hospitalised, teenage son. (The film’s Chinese title literally means “Second-Hand Masterpiece.”) Co-funded by film-maker Ning Hao 宁浩 (via his company Dirty Monkeys 坏猴子), with Ning and leading actor Yu Hewei 于和伟 as creative producers 监制, it started shooting in May 2021 and was finally released in autumn 2023, taking only a very polite RMB116 million.
Ning gives himself (and comedian/director Xu Zheng 徐峥) a cameo at the start and, though he didn’t direct the film, his fingerprints are all over it. (He subsequently went on to direct a comedy with a similar theme, The Hutong Cowboy 爆款好人 [2024], starring veteran Ge You 葛优 as a Beijing cabbie rocketed to internet celebrity, which, despite its many qualities, crashed at the box office.) The official name on the can – alongside that of associate director Li Ji 李季 (wacky comedy Keep Rolling 大场面, 2024) – is that of Wang Zizhao 王子昭, a Beijing-born film-maker in his mid-30s who, after graduating from Beijing Film Academy in 2010, directed and acted in a handful of shorts before joining the Dirty Monkeys team in 2016. One of his favourite films while at university was the Robin Williams comedy World’s Greatest Dad (2009), written and directed by anarchic stand-up comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, and, as the end titles acknowledge, Wang’s first feature is based on it.
Goldthwait’s film – his fourth feature – gained good reviews as a video-on-demand title but was a box-office flop, only briefly released theatrically. Wang’s version, on the script of which he worked for three years with co-writers Xu Luyang 许渌洋 (black rom-com My Dear Liar 受益人, 2019; scamming drama No More Bets 孤注一掷, 2023) and Liu Xiaodan 刘晓丹 (a Ning regular the past five years), is broadly faithful to the original’s basic idea but develops it in interesting and blackly humorous ways. For a start, the son doesn’t die in Wang’s version, and the reason for his initial hospitalisation is even creepier. Also, the lead character of the high-school teacher who wants to be a famous writer is married, not a single father, and in the second half of the film takes a very entrepreneurial attitude to his dilemma. In general, Wang’s remake is richer at a character level, with clever use of language in its dialogue – though it does start getting repetitive in its final half-hour.
It’s a strong vehicle for Liaoning-born actor Yu, who was actually the same age as his character (50) when shooting began, and who’s remained a busy actor on TV (mostly) and in film the past two decades, in both supporting and starring roles, without becoming a superstar or cutting a special profile. Recently, the lantern-faced actor stole the whole of the corruption drama Under the Light 坚如磐石 (2023, dir. Zhang Yimou 张艺谋) as an arrogant tycoon, was top-billed in Zhang’s period spy yarn Cliff Walkers 悬崖之上 (2021) as an undercover agent, and was one of the few actors in castaway fable The Island 一出好戏 (2018) who didn’t rely on mugging. In Dad, Yu eats and breathes the role of the somewhat scruffy middle-aged teacher who’s obsessed with becoming a famous writer and will do almost anything to become one. (His facial expression, when his character is confronted with a situation he has to lie his way out of, is memorable.)
The irony of the film is that the teacher finally becomes trapped in his own invented reality, despite all the grounding efforts of his wife (versatile Ni Hongjie 倪虹洁, B for Busy 爱情神话, 2021, making the acidic most of a rather colourless role). The supporting cast is characterful down the line, led by Zhang Zixian 张子贤 (My Dear Liar) as a jealous fellow teacher, Lv Xing 吕行 as the headmaster trying to contain any scandal, Guo Qilin 郭麒麟 (son of xiangsheng performer Guo Degang 郭德纲) as the slow-witted but likeable son, and Xu Enyi 许恩怡 (so good in high-school musical The Day We Lit up the Sky 燃野少年的天空, 2021) as the ambitious female classmate whom the son is dangerously obsessed by.
The film has a natural look underlined by the largely handheld camerawork of d.p. Wen Yu 文郁 (in his first feature) which is all focused on the performances. Music by He Li 何立 is especially good for the film’s end titles that so many films simply wallpaper with a forgettable song.
CREDITS
Presented by Dirty Monkeys (Shanghai) Culture & Media (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Beijing Super Lion Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Horgos Jindouyun Film & TV Culture Communication (CN).
Script: Xu Luyang, Liu Xiaodan, Wang Zizhao. Original script: Bobcat Goldthwait. Photography: Wen Yu. Editing: Zhang Yibo, Zhou Xiaolin. Music: He Li. Art direction: Du Guangyu. Styling: Du Guangyu. Sound: Xiao Baohua, Wang Yanwei. Visual effects: Zhang Zuozhi. Executive direction: Wang Feng.
Cast: Yu Hewei (Ma Yinbo), Guo Qilin (Ma Mo), Ni Hongjie (Pan Dongni), Xu Enyi (Xu Sisi), Zhang Zixian (Ji, teacher), Feng Lei (publisher), Lv Xing (headmaster), Liu Meihan (Xiaomei/Jessica), Yue Xiaojun (chief editor), Ding Wenbo (Sha, school security guard), An Dong (Liu Xiaodan, reporter), Feng Xintian (publisher’s secretary), Zhou Fang (female publicist), Cheng Yusen (Jia Zixi), Gao Ye (herself, TV presenter), Li Chengru (TV director), Liu Hua (head judge), Liu Yiwei (interview host), Song Fangjin, Yu Weiguo (interviewees), Fang Ling (award ceremony MC), Lin Yiting (neurospecialist), Zhang Jietian (police captain), Xu Zheng, Ning Hao (themselves, award presenters), Cheng Zhaoge (Zhaoge), Li Ji (law-enforcement team leader), Zhan He (attending doctor), Li Yijun (exam invigilator), Zhang Beibei (nightclub manager), Zhang Zhanyi (van driver), Wang Jinxin (lead firefighter).
Release: China, 27 Oct 2023.