The Eleventh Chapter
第十一回
China, 2019, colour, 1.85:1, 116 mins.
Director: Chen Jianbin 陈建斌.
Rating: 6/10.
Strongly cast black comedy about an average man trying to stop an avant-garde play doesn’t sustain its promise.
STORY
A city in northern China, the present day. Chapter One 第一回. At the Phoenix Theatre avant-garde Our City Theatre Group is in rehearsals for the play Breakneck Brake 刹车杀人, created by director Hu Kunding (Da Peng), that’s based on an incident 30 years ago in which a tractor ploughed into a couple making love in a car. Suddenly Ma Fuli (Chen Jianbin), who runs a breakfast delivery service with his family, bursts into the theatre and demands the play be cancelled. He says he was that tractor driver and the accident happened because the brakes were broken. The dead woman was his first wife, Zhao Fengxia, and she was committing adultery; afterwards, he was jailed for 15 years. Following a discussion, Hu Kunding decides to ignore Ma Fuli’s complaints, saying the play is art, not fact. He persuades his lead actress, Jia Meiyi (Chun Xia), to carry on. Chapter Two 第二回. Ma Fuli’s second wife, Jin Cailing (Zhou Xun), tells him to ignore the whole thing. But his step-daughter, Jin Duoduo (Dou Jingtong), tells him to get a lawyer and sue. Later Jin Duoduo tells him she’s pregnant by a married man and wants an abortion, and that he should help steal some money from his wife’s/her mother’s savings to pay for it. Ma Fuli tells lawyer Bai (Wang Xuebing) that he actually made a false confession at the time, that he didn’t intend to kill anyone. Bai says he therefore served 15 years in jail and was branded a murderer for nothing; he needs to get the original verdict reversed and retrieve his dignity. Ma Fuli says the same to Li, aka Brother Pi (Jia Bing), an eccentric businessman who’s into religious fads and is the younger brother of the dead man, Li Jianshe. Li says it’s all history now and it’s time to move on. Chapter Three 第三回. Bai is angry with Ma Fuli as he’s decided to drop the lawsuit to get his jail sentence reversed. He convinces him to pursue it, so Ma Fuli tells Li, who then gets angry and offers the theatre manager, Fu Kusi (Yu Qian), RMB200,000 in sponsorship to make changes to the play. Meanwhile, Hu Kunding’s liking for lead actress Jia Meiyi is becoming more obvious. Chapter Four 第四回. Jin Cailing freaks out at the news of her daughter’s pregnancy, but the latter now wants to keep it. So, to protect her daughter’s reputation, Jin Cailing pretends to be pregnant instead by putting a cushion up her dress. Ma Fuli hears from Gou Yewu (Liu Jinshan), the theatre caretaker, that the play has been changed to make the dead woman into a seducer of the dead man. Chapter Five 第五回. At rehearsals, Gou Yewu drunkenly accuses Hu Kunding, who is married to his niece, of having an affaire with Jia Meiyi; but Fu Kusi forces Gou Yewu to write and read out a “self-criticism” of his behaviour. Fu Kusi and Hu Kunding then come under pressure from city authorities to make more changes to the play, which result in the cast turning on Hu Kunding. Chapter Six 第六回. Hu Kunding drunkenly apologises to the cast, but Gou Yewu shops him to his niece, Zhen Manyu (Song Jia). Meanwhile, Jia Meiyi starts to identify with her role of Ma Fuli’s late first wife. Chapter Seven 第七回. Zhen Manyu turns up at rehearsals and demands an apology from Jia Meiyi for insulting her husband. After another big argument between Hu Kunding and the cast, after which Jia Meiyi goes missing, the theatre manager suspends the production. Zhen Manyu then gets her brother (Li Jiuxiao) and his pals to beat up Hu Kunding. Chapter Eight 第八回. Ma Fuli consults lawyer Bai and businessman Li but neither is any use. Chapter Nine 第九回. Jin Duoduo makes a decision about her pregnancy. Hu Kunding is ruined and the play is finally staged with a change of cast. Chapter Ten 第十回. Ma Fuli’s family life carries on as usual. Jin Duoduo makes another decision about her pregnancy. Chapter Eleven 第十一回. The accident, the two lovers, their pledge.
REVIEW
After his solid debut as a director with the witty rural allegory A Fool 一个勺子 (2014), well-known Mainland character actor Chen Jianbin 陈建斌, 50, aims higher but falls lower with his second outing, The Eleventh Chapter 第十一回. A black comedy centred on a theatre troupe’s staging of a play based on a real-life case of manslaughter 30 years earlier, it’s strongly cast down the line but hobbled by a distracting structure (divided into 11 chapters) and, at almost two hours, is way too long, progressively losing its satirical edge. After premiering at the Beijing festival in Apr 2019, it was finally released in the Mainland this spring; box office was over three times that for A Fool but, at RMB74 million, only polite.
Chen himself again plays the lead character, in this case a middle-aged, average working guy with a second wife, step-daughter and small breakfast service in an unnamed northern town. But when he hears on the radio that a theatre troupe is rehearsing a play that’s based on an incident for which he went to jail for 15 years, Ma Fuli does everything he can to stop it. On the surface it’s another tale of one man against the system, as Ma Fuli deals with the play’s creator/director, who says he’s creating art, not fact; the theatre’s manager, who’s more interested in sponsorship; and a municipal bureaucrat who just wants to keep everyone happy. He also has to deal with his lawyer, who says a lot but does nothing; the theatre’s old caretaker who’s furious the director, who’s married to his niece, is having an affaire with the lead actress; and the brother of the man who died 30 years ago always changing his mind about whether the play should be staged. Meanwhile, Ma Fuli’s home life isn’t exactly smooth, with his unmarried step-daughter pregnant but unable decide whether to keep the baby, and his wife pretending she is the pregnant one in order to save the family’s face.
There’s all the elements of a gradually escalating farce here, and during the first hour or so the script juggles the various ingredients with skill, helped by top playing by a strong cast. In an unlikely role, Zhou Xun 周迅, now in her mid-40s and not so often seen on the big screen, is terrific as Ma Fuli’s dowdy but determined wife, and, in her film debut, 24-year-old singer Dou Jingtong 窦靖童 (daughter of singers Dou Wei 窦唯 and Wang
Fei 王菲 [Faye Wong]) is equally well cast as his moody and mercurial step-daughter. Holding the theatrical half of the film up, comic Da Peng 大鹏 has a ball as the pretentious play director who’s always quoting Ibsen and Stanislavsky but is more interesting in bedding his leading actress (brightly played by Chun Xia 春夏, the revelation of Port of Call 踏雪寻梅, 2015).
Between these two extremes, Wang Xuebing 王学兵 (The Road Not Taken 未择之路, 2018) exploits his easy likeability as the lawyer who talks and talks but says nothing, and Jia Bing 贾冰 (most recently seen as the oily boss in Big Red Envelope 大红包, 2021) keeps popping up entertainingly as the original victim’s wealthy brother who is into every wacky religion. Through all these characters, and others like chubby veteran Liu Jinshan 刘金山 as the old caretaker and Song Jia 宋佳 in a memorable cameo as the director’s cuckolded wife, Chen threads himself with self-effacing skill.
Unfortunately, the air starts going out of the bag some 70 minutes or so in, as it becomes clear the film has weightier intentions on its mind than just farce. The chapter divisions – each loaded with text that simply describes what happens (e.g. “Waking from a dream, Ma sleeps on a summer day; out of nowhere trouble comes from the radio”) – become increasingly annoying, popping up every 10 minutes (or less), adding nothing, disturbing the film’s flow, and becoming increasingly pretentious in their wording. They’re also a constant reminder of how far there’s still to go until Chapter 11, which will supposedly form the climax. When it finally comes, the eponymous chapter theatrically reveals what actually happened during the tractor accident 30 years earlier, plus a final twist; and then, when the end titles are almost over, Chen adds a six-minute coda that serves no discernible purpose at all. This is a film that simply doesn’t know when to quit.
At its best, however, Chapter is very good, a clever riff on fact vs fiction, life vs art, and the importance of face and reputation in a pragmatic society. It has the feel of a theatre script but in fact isn’t, even though the original idea came from a theatre colleague of Chen and at least one of the writers, Lei Zhilong 雷志龙, has worked in theatre as well as film (The Insanity 你好，疯子！, 2016; A Cool Fish 无名之辈, 2018). Lead writer Niu Jianrong 牛建荣, 59, has extensive experience in TV drama, also as a director.
Technical credits are atmospheric, led by the slightly dusty photography by Guo Dapeng 郭达明 (Soul on a String 皮绳上的魂, 2016; The Road Not Taken) and acute art direction by Zhai Tao 翟韬 (A Fool), both of which evoke an anonymous, provincial feel. Ditto the styling by Chen Yuye 陈玉叶 (A Fool). Satirical, rather than nostalgic, use is made of the classic 1979 song Tianmimi 甜蜜蜜, sung by the late Deng Lijun 邓丽君 [Teresa Teng].
CREDITS
Presented by Taiyuan Jiabo Culture & Media (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), China Film (CN), Tencent Pictures Culture Media (CN), Horgos Sparetime Film & TV (CN), K Pictures (Shanghai) (CN), Jiabo Culture Development (CN). Produced by Horgos Jiabo Film & TV Investment (CN), Horgos Sparetime Film & TV (CN).
Script: Niu Jianrong, Niu Niu, Chen Jianbin, Lei Zhilong. Photography: Guo Daming. Editing: Fang Yuan, Yu Hongchao, Chen Jianbin. Music: Jia Yi’nan, Huang Shaofeng. Art direction: Zhai Tao. Costumes: Shen Tingting. Styling: Chen Yuye. Sound: Wu Jingjing. Action: Zhang Jianfeng. Executive direction: Zhang Zhe.
Cast: Chen Jianbin (Ma Fuli), Zhou Xun (Jin Cailing), Da Peng [Dong Chengpeng] (Hu Kunding/Quentin, theatre director), Dou Jingtong (Jin Duoduo, Jin Cailing’s daughter), Chun Xia (Jia Meiyi, lead actress), Liu Jinshan (Gou Yewu, theatre caretaker), Yu Qian (Fu Kusi, theatre manager), Jia Bing (Li/Pi Ge/Brother Pi, businessman), Niu Ben (old man), Song Jia (Zhen Manyu, Hu Kunding’s wife), Huang Jianxin (municipal bureaucrat), Wang Xuebing (Bai, lawyer), Shi Hang (doctor), Fang Ling (pillow-fight MC), Li Jiuxiao (Zhen Dehua, Zhen Manyu’s brother), Zhang Shiyi (Yao Danni, actor), Wu Sixuan (Xiaodai, actress), Li Luqi (Liu Yisi), Wen Qi (Lei Siling).
Premiere: Beijing Film Festival (Competition), 13 Apr 2019.
Release: China, 2 Apr 2021.