Be Somebody
扬名立万
China, 2021, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 122 mins.
Director: Liu Xunzimo 刘循子墨.
Rating: 6/10.
Richly written and staged, this period Shanghai crime comedy is too long and gets snagged in its own cleverness.
STORY
Shanghai, the late 1940s. Li Jiahui (Yin Zheng), a former journalist/critic and now alcoholic, struggling scriptwriter, is invited to the mansion of Lu Ziye (Chen Minghao), a powerful businessman/gangster. As he arrives, he also sees Guan Jingnian (Yang Haoyu), a well-known but now ageing matinee idol from silent cinema days. Inside the mansion they find others already there: commercially successful director Zheng Qianli (Yu Entai), actress Su Mengdie (Deng Jiajia) who’s just come back from Hong Kong, and action star Chen Xiaoda (Ke Da) who’s recently returned from Hollywood. Two other men are also sitting at the table. The meeting is being recorded by a camera set up on a tripod. Zheng Qianli and Li Jiahui immediately start arguing but are interrupted by the arrival of Lu Ziye, who says he’s invited them all as he has a real-life case that he wants to turn into a film. It’s the Case of the Three Elders 三老案, Shanghai’s most sensational in several years, in which the trio who ran the city’s economic lifelines of banking, shipping and industry were all murdered one day along with their bodyguards. The killer was arrested and sentenced to death but the fuss the case generated has been going on for more than six months. Zheng Qianli and Li Jiahui both love the idea, though for different reasons, so Lu Ziye introduces the two other men at the table – Qi Leshan (Zhang Benyu) and Hai Zhaofeng (Qin Xiaoxian) – as advisors everyone can consult. Zheng Qianli sees the film as an action romance; Li Jiahui sees it as a realistic drama, sticking to the facts of the case and the unearthing of the killer. But then, as he leans under the table to pick up a pen he’s dropped, he notices that Qi Leshan is manacled and his feet are chained to the floor. Lu Ziye asks his guests for the killer’s motive, and Zheng Qianli suggests a “childhood trauma”. Li Jiahui, terrified by what he’s just seen, finally snaps and tells the others that the killer is sitting with them at the table. Zheng Qianli freaks out but Su Mengdie says she already knew – and having the killer involved would be a good selling point for the film. Zheng Qianli calms down after being promised more money by Lu Ziye. The younger man next to Qi Leshan introduces himself as Hai Zhaofeng (Qin Xiaoxian), the prisoner’s police escort. Li Jiahui questions Qi Leshan as to his motive and the latter says it was money. But under relentless questioning Li Jiahui discovers another reason. During a break, Guan Jingnian tells Li Jiahui that Qi Leshan is not exactly whom he claims to be, and that the murder case has connections that make him afraid. Later, after they move upstairs, Lu Ziye orders his men to seal the doors, and the group finds itself in a large blood-spattered room – which Hai Zhaofeng says is actually the murder’s crime scene. There’s also the case, six months ago, of a French doctor in Shanghai who dismembered his victims.
REVIEW
Richly written and staged, Be Somebody 扬名立万 is a black crime comedy that starts impressively but soon starts getting snagged in its own multiple plot twists as it morphs from a whodunit to a why/howdunit. The first theatrical feature by Beijing-born writer-director Liu Xunzimo 刘循子墨, 35 – known for his online drama series Yes Boss! 报告老板！(2013- ) and as an actor in comedies like the Journey to the West-ish Surprise 万万没想到 (2015), based on an online series and directed by his close colleague Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing 叫兽易小星 – it goes beyond the rapid sketch-based comedy that is Liu’s background and attempts to spoof everything from classic crime mysteries and period Shanghai dramas to the whole of the film industry (from script meetings to fading movie stars). Always nicely mounted and featuring some juicily written dialogue, Be Somebody is at least 20 minutes too long, and too much in love with its own cleverness to sustain its opening tone across two hours. However, that didn’t stop it being a sizeable hit late last year, taking RMB927 million despite having no major stars.
Liu’s co-writers – Li Bashen 里八神 (pen name of Chen Si 陈思), Zhang Benyu 张本煜 and Ke Da 柯达 – are all writers/performers who come from the online world or the series Yes Boss! and Surprise, and have known each other for several years. (Zhang even plays a main character in Somebody, the very confident mass murderer, while Ke plays an action star who’s returned from abroad.) All are, to some extent, working in the unfamiliar format of the long-span feature film rather than fast-paced, cheeky sketches, and when things begin it looks like they’ve managed the transition. As various key figures of the late-1940s Shanghai film industry gather at the mansion of a powerful boss, the film sets out its stall with some care. There’s the arrogant hit director, the icy actress, the fading matinee idol, the overseas action star and the alcoholic critic-turned-scriptwriter; the mansion is richly decorated in period Shanghai style; and we all know everyone has secrets to hide and a murder is somewhere in the offing. In fact, the boss asks them to make a film based on a recent case in which three heads of industry were massacred; and then they discover the killer is actually sitting at the same table.
That’s just the first 20 minutes of a two-hour movie that continues to spring some nice surprises in the next half-hour but gradually becomes so multi-layered with diversions and twists that it gets bogged down in its own complexity. One problem is that the central half-dozen characters hardly develop beyond cut-outs, and as the plot keeps getting repeated coats of fresh paint – plus whole new sub-plots involving a French serial killer and a singing starlet – the film is forced to fall back on guest cameos to maintain the momentum. One of these, character actor Yu Ailei 余皑磊 who often plays seedy types, brings some much-needed fresh air to the final stretch; others, like the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo as a photoshop owner by Taiwan actor Zhao Wenxuan 赵文瑄 [Winston Chao], add nothing. Given the creators’ links to the films of comedy troupe Ma Hua FunAge 开心麻花, the only missing cameo is one by actor Shen Teng 沈腾.
The film appears to be vaguely set in the late 1940s but is full of anachronistic props, clothing and references that seem to deliberately cock a snook at historical accuracy. That’s fine in a comedy; less fine is a central plot that strains credibility from the outset – particularly with a convicted mass murderer brought from prison to a rich man’s script conference. As almost the sole actress in the film, Deng Jiajia 邓家佳 (the accused in Silent Witness 全民目击, 2013) is not given much of a part beyond looking cool and elegant in a qipao. The film-makers seem happier writing for male characters, among whom actor-singer Yin Zheng 尹正 (Goodbye Mr. Loser 夏洛特烦恼, 2015; the girly co-driver in Pegasus 飞驰人生, 2019) grows impressively in his first big-screen leading role as the alcoholic journalist-turned-scriptwriter with an anachronistic head of hair. Similarly good, Zhang Benyu (the car thief in Duckweed 乘风破浪, 2017; mechanic in Pegasus) almost steals the show as the confident, quietly droll prisoner. It’s no coincidence that Han Han 韩寒, celebrity writer-director of Duckweed and Pegasus, is the film’s creative producer 监制, and gets a credit alongside Liu’s on the screen.
Top Mainland d.p. Li Bingqiang 李炳强 (Fleet of Time 勿勿那年, 2014; Hello, Mrs. Money 李茶的“姑妈”, 2018) brings a rich, burnished look to the opulent sets by first-timer Li Anran 李安然. With 90% of the film set inside the vast mansion, there’s always plenty to entertain the eyes even when the brain has disengaged. In that respect it’s sometimes not so different from the crime comedy Thrilling Eve 夜幕惊魂 (2013, dir. Ding Xiaoyang 丁小洋), set in the Shanghai mansion of a famous actress but in the 1930s.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai Maoyan Picture (CN), Beijing Unimedia Film (CN), Shanghai PMF Pictures (CN). Produced by Beijing Unimedia Film (CN).
Script: Li Bashen, Liu Xunzimo, Zhang Benyu, Ke Da. Script advice: A Nuo [Zhang Shoujun]. Photography: Li Bingqiang. Editing: Zhang Qi, Fan Zhaoshuo. Music: Shen Bi’ang [Björn Shen]. Art direction: Li Anran. Costumes: Qu Yajuan. Styling: Qu Luzhen. Sound: Wan Gui’ao, Wang Danrong, Zhang Zhenyu. Action: Zhang Yongzhen. Visual effects: Huang Yunfeng. Executive direction: Lu Xiao.
Cast: Yin Zheng (Li Jiahui), Deng Jiajia (Su Mengdie, actress), Yu Entai (Zheng Qianli, director), Yang Haoyu (Guan Jingnian, actor), Zhang Benyu (Qi Leshan, killer), Ke Da (Chen Xiaoda, action star), Chen Minghao (Lu Ziye, boss), Qin Xiaoxian (Hai Zhaofeng, police escort), Deng Enxi (Ye Ying, singer), Yu Ailei (Liu Yi, police chief), Zhao Wenxuan [Winston Chao] (photo-shop boss), Bai Ke (photo-shop assistant), Xiao Ai (interpreter), Zhou Qi (reporter).
Release: China, 11 Nov 2021.