I Want You

中国好声音之为你转身

China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins.

Director: Cai Yuwei 蔡於位 [Chai Yee Wei].

Rating: 6/10.

Spin-off from TV talent show The Voice of China has a simple, easy charm but no depth.

STORY

Sanya, Hainan island, southern China, the present day. Among a new intake of students at Fangfei Haoshengyin College of Art are Wu Peishan (Wu Mochou), her friend Ding Piaopiao (Ding Ding), tomboy Liu Yichen (Da Shan) and singer Zhao Anna (Zhao Lu), who share a room together. On their first night they visit the open-air Edry Bar & Grill, whose barman, Li Ziyang (Li Daimo), Wu Peishan had earlier had a run-in with when he broke her guitar. The owner (Zhong Weiqiang) is being harrassed for money by thugs, who drive all the customers away, including a couple, Jin Zi (Jin Chi) and Da Xuan (Zhang Hexuan). Returning to the bar later, Wu Peishan hears Li Ziyang singing, and suggests they team up as a recompense for her broken guitar. Next day Li Ziyang buys her a new one and turns down her suggestion. Later, his friend Hao (Li Qiuze), who sings at the bar, tells Wu Peishan that Li Ziyang hasn’t sung in public since a traumatic event a couple of years ago involving his girlfriend Wenwen. Next day, however, Li Ziyang asks Wu Peishan’s help in getting over his block. The girls plan to appear in a local music festival but when Wu Peishan’s brother (Hua Shao) discovers she’s been singing instead of studying he opposes her taking part. He later changes his mind, but a tragic accident again threatens Wu Peishan’s participation in the festival.

REVIEW

The curious thing about I Want You 中国好声音之为你转身 is that, though it’s set in China, is written by a Mainlander, and is stuffed with names from the first two series of TV talent show The Voice of China (中國好聲音, 2012-  ), Singaporean director Cai Yuwei 蔡於位 [Chai Yee Wei] has turned it into a movie that could easily have come from his home country. From its mildly rebellious but squeaky-clean characters, through its tropical urban locations, to its blend of silly-arse humour and didactic undercurrents, I Want You might just as well have been set on Sentosa and an HDB estate as on Hainan island in southern China. Maybe that’s why the movie failed to resonate with the Mainland audience it was made for; or maybe it was just too slim dramatically, proving yet again that TV-sourced material doesn’t necessarily get a cinema following.

Despite all that, the movie has a simple, easy charm and innocent energy and optimism; it also comes packed with songs (arranged or written by Singapore’s Huang Yunren 黄韵仁 that aren’t especially memorable but, with their free ballad-like flavour, aren’t standard Mandopop ballads either. (Only one, 取名回憶的時光, written by Huang and sung by leads Wu Mochou 吴莫愁 and Li Daimo 李代沫, has an inspirational quality.) With the paper-thin script doing little more than provide a background for one number after another, as a group of music students aim to take part in a local song festival, the film is entirely supported by its cast of young names.

The offbeat looking and sounding Wu, 22, who’s been compared with the late UK singer Amy Winehouse, pretty much steals the show and has good chemistry with the shy, geeky-looking Li, playing a onetime singer-turned-barman; among the others, Zhao Lu 赵露, also 22, has a sunny appeal and a big sassy voice, the tomboyish Da Shan 刘大山, 27, represents a Li Yuchun 李宇春-like figure, and Ding Ding 丁丁, also 27, is largely there to supply a romantic subplot. However, they blend together in an easy, collegiate way, leaving the serious singing to Wu and some older names, like the smokey-voiced, 36-year-old Jin Chi 金池.

Though he was only a director-for-hire, Cai brings top-class technical packaging to the project that even surpasses his previous music film, That Girl in Pinafore  我的朋友  我的同学  我♥过的一切 (2013), despite working with a largely Mainland crew and the shooting period being a mere 17 days. Widescreen photography by Singapore’s Lv Junjie 吕俊杰 (Pinafore) and Taiwan’s Zhan Ruiwen 粘瑞温 is richly-toned; a 10-minute music-and-dance number midway through the film is nattily staged; and editing is mobile without being musicvideo flashy. As the first Singaporean to make a Mainland-financed feature in China for the local market, Cai shows he can deliver the technical goods even if his characters are totally lightweight. And for anyone who may be wondering, it’s still three times as good as the Shanghai-set student “musical” Showtime 用心跳 (2010), by Hong Kong’s Guan Jinpeng 关锦鹏 [Stanley Kwan].

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Star Television Production (CN), Zhejiang Star TV (CN), Zhejiang Golden Globe Pictures (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Shanghai MM2 Entertainment (CN). Produced by Shanghai Star Television Production (CN), Zhejiang Huaying Film & TV (CN), Shanghai Riyuexing Culture Communication (CN).

Script: Shi Yixin. Original script: Huang Mai. Photography: Lv Junjie [Derrick Loo], Zhan Ruiwen. Editing: Zhang Xiang. Music direction: Huang Yunren [Eric Ng]. Art direction: Xu Duo. Sound: Feng Deyao. Executive direction: Zhang Jun.

Cast: Li Daimo (Li Ziyang), Wu Mochou (Wu Peishan), Zhang Wei (Zhang Le), Ding Ding (Ding Piaopiao), Wang Ke (Wang Wei), Zhao Lu (Zhao Anna), Da Shan [Liu Dashan] (Liu Yichen), Jin Chi [Li Suping] (Jin Zi, woman in bar), Zhang Hexuan (Da Xuan, man in bar), Xuan Xuan [Dai Yingxuan] (Li Li), Li Qiuze (Hao, Li Ziyang’s friend), Zhong Weiqiang (bar owner), Wang Feng (headmaster), Hua Shao (Wu Peishan’s brother), Yi Yi [Peng Yiyi] (MC).

Release: China, 27 Dec 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 10 May 2014.)