August Never Ends
八月未央
China, 2021, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 94 mins.
Director: Li Kai 李凯.
Rating: 4/10.
Novelistic love story is holed by a lack of on-screen chemistry to make everything even half-believable.
STORY
Shanghai, the present day. Autumn 秋 遇见你是命中注定. Independent but melancholy Weiyang (Zhong Chuxi), who runs a coffee lounge, lives a free-wheeling life, indulging her love of motorbikes and still photography. She doesn’t have a mobile phone or a Weixin account or a boyfriend; but she is haunted by memories of her late mother (Tan Songyun). At Japanese class she meets newcomer Lin Xiaoqiao (Tan Songyun) who reminds her strongly of her mother when young; bubbly and talkative, the complete opposite of Weiyang, Lin Xiaoqiao tries to make friends with her. Meanwhile, one rainy evening a passer-by (Luo Jin) helps mend Weiyang’s motorbike, which has been damaged by being left outside her coffee lounge in the storm. She loans him her first edition of Japanese author Murakami Haruki’s Norwegian Wood in thanks. Lin Xiaoqiao takes Weiyang shopping one day and later the passer-by drops by her coffee lounge again to do more work on her motorbike. Weiyang also visits Lin Xiaoqiao’s luxury high-rise flat where she lives alone since her wealthy parents split up. Lin Xiaoqiao says she’s waiting to marry her boyfriend of 10 years, Chao Yan. Weiyang says she’s never had a boyfriend, as men always let you down, remembering how her father suddenly walked out on her mother. One day, when meeting Lin Xiaoqiao at her workplace, Weiyang meets Chao Yan, and sees he’s the passer-by who mended her motorbike. Embarrassed, neither Chao Yan nor Weiyang lets Lin Xiaoqiao know. Winter 冬 爱上你是在劫难逃. Weiyang now has a mobile phone, and Lin Xiaoqiao invites her to a big, public New Year’s Eve Party where she is with Chao Yan. When Lin Xiaoqiao gets drunk, Weiyang and Chao Yan end up alone, and make love in a lighthouse. Later Lin Xiaoqiao tells Weiyang that Chao Yan has suddenly dumped her, on the day of their wedding-dress photos. Heartbroken, Lin Xiaoqiao stays with Weiyang, who promises she’ll take care of her. Weiyang and Chao Yan secretly see each other; both agree they don’t want to hurt Lin Xiaoqiao but Chao Yan says he’ll never be able to forget Weiyang. Meanwhile, Weiyang is still haunted by a dream of having caused her mother to fall down the stairs when she was just a young girl. When Lin Xiaoqiao suddenly goes missing, Weiyang desperately searches the streets on her motorbike, and ends up in hospital when she has an accident. Spring 春 陪伴你是如沐春风. Lin Xiaoqiao moves in with Weiyang, and Chao Yan moves abroad. The two young women pledge eternal friendship but then tragedy strikes. Summer 夏 成为你是生死轮回. Weiyang flies to Japan to see Mt. Fuji and a new life begins for her.
REVIEW
Shot three years ago in Shanghai and Japan, and belatedly released this spring to blah box office of RMB68 million, August Never Ends 八月未央 is a highly novelistic adaptation of an early short story by Mainland writer-essayist Anni Baobei 安妮宝贝 (“Annie Baby”) that’s let down by a lack of chemistry between its leads to give all the unlikely goings-on any conviction. A triangular love story that’s only really interested in the two women, it’s of passing interest thanks to the individual performances and slick mounting. But it’s given no special depth by writer-director Li Kai 李凯, a genre director (Crazy Foolish Thieves 疯狂的蠢贼, 2012; War on a String 悬战, 2015; Ghost 食人岛, 2016) here making his first feature of consequence, and lacks any narrative drive during its final half-hour, which is mostly spent tidying things up.
Li’s script closely follows the short story by Ningbo-born writer Anni Baobei – aka Qing Shan 庆山, real name Li Jie 李婕 – that was originally published in the first collection of her stories and essays back in 2001 (see cover, left). Now 46, Anni Baobei started writing online stories – generally centred on female characters and their intimate feelings – in her early 20s and several have been adapted for film, TV and even the theatre, most notably SoulMate 七月与安生 (2016), adapted from an even earlier short story. Though it’s much more tightly focused than SoulMate, August has a very similar plot at its heart: two women of different character – one freewheeling, one conventional – form a close, “sisterly” relationship but find themselves attracted to the same man, with all the emotional betrayals and complications that involves.
This, unfortunately, is where August fails and SoulMate succeeded so well. The platonic love affair between the freewheeling Weiyang, who loves her lack of commitments, and conventional rich girl Lin Xiaoqiao, who’s just waiting to marry her boyfriend of 10 years, isn’t remotely believable – or at least not as played and presented here. In SoulMate, actresses Zhou Dongyu 周冬雨 and Ma Sichun 马思纯 showed a natural chemistry and broad range of emotions; in August, Zhong Chuxi 钟楚曦 and Tan Songyun 谭松韵 are convincing separately but never as a pair.
It was the same problem that affected the recent drama Wild Grass 荞麦疯长 (2020), which had hints (unfulfilled) of the same relationship and coincidentally starred Zhong and Ma. A former ballet student with a smokey screen presence (Youth 芳华, 2017; Dude’s Manual 脱单告急, 2018), Zhong, now in her late 20s, is convincing as the independent Weiyang, who loves cruising on her motorbike when she’s not reading Murakami Haruki 村上春树 in the original Japanese or supposedly running a backstreet coffee lounge. She’s a novelistic creation but okay within the very novelistic universe of voiceovers, touchy-feely dialogue, emotional outbursts, and plenty of scenic backgrounds. But why she should take a liking to a chattering bubblehead like Lin Xiaoqiao is never convincingly explained – apart from the fact that she reminds her of her late mother and their chance meeting was therefore “fate”. Right.
The screenplay is separated into a year of seasons, from autumn to summer, with gushy titles: “Autumn: Meeting You Was Decreed by Fate”, “Winter: Falling in Love with You Was Inevitable”, “Spring: Accompanying You Was Like Bathing in Spring Wind” and “Summer: Becoming You Was a Reincarnation”. Contrived as it is, the relationship could still have worked on screen if there was some kind of natural chemistry between the two players, but Tan, a light actress since her teens who’s now in her early 30s, lacks the acting smarts for her double role as the bubbly Lin Xiaoqiao and the tragic mother. As the guy between the two gals, TV’s Luo Jin 罗晋 (okay as the doctor in psychodrama Ash 灰烬重生, 2017) also just plays what is written on his card.
Widescreen photography of summery Shanghai and picture-postcard Japan by d.p. Zhao Yuqing 赵昱清 (Who under the Bed 床下有人, 2011; Fantasia 幻想曲, 2014; How Are You 李梅和韩梅梅 昨日重现, 2017) and editing by the experienced Zhu Lin 朱琳 both create a slick, good-looking package. The title is a play on words, meaning “August Isn’t Over” as well as “August Weiyang”.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing CashFlower Communication (CN), Horgos Limited Entertainment Partners Culture & Media (CN), Shanghai Zenergy Film (CN), Fanyu Media (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Zhongzhi Media (CN).
Script: Li Kai. Short story: Anni Baobei. Photography: Zhao Yuqing. Editing: Zhu Lin. Music: Zhang Zheng. End-title song music: Zhang Heng, Feng Mingxiao. Lyrics: An Jiu, Feng Kun. Vocal: Yu Kewei. Art direction: Hu Meng. Costume design: Liu Jiayu. Styling: Wang Meng, Zhang Xiang. Sound: Pei Dongfeng, Niu Chao, Lu Zihan. Action: Wang Xinfeng, Chen Xiao. Car stunts: Zhou Guanzhao. Visual effects: Quan Hongkun, Shi Bingjie. Executive direction: Chen Yilin, Zhang Zuofeng.
Cast: Zhong Chuxi (Weiyang), Tan Songyun (Lin Xiaoqiao; Weiyang’s mother), Luo Jin (Chao Yan), Tian Yu (Deng, Japanese teacher), Wan Ziqing (young Weiyang), Zhang Lei (Lin Hongyu, Lin Xiaoqiao’s father), Chen Minghao (street performance artist), Mao Yanqi (Lucia), Ouyang Yiqi (bar singer), Guo Mucheng (Xiaoqiao, Weiyang’s young daughter), Zhang Zuofeng (thin man), Ding Nan (shop assistant), Zhang Jie (hotel manager), Song Shoushu (old man in ruins), Zhao Zenggang (old man drinking tea), Li Xinyu (old female neighbour), Jin Long (doctor), Fang Weilin (bar girl), Yu Xin (beach DJ), Li Daben (Lucia’s boyfriend), Zhang Yang (drunk), Xu Fang (bar DJ), Liu Haisheng (driver), Yoshida Nashi (Japanese nurse), Iwata Masaya (Japanese doctor).
Release: China, 16 Apr 2021.