Knock Knock
不速来客
China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 104 mins.
Director: Liu Xiang 刘翔.
Rating: 7/10.
Lightly comic crime puzzler, set in a grubby flat, holds the attention thanks to a strong script and the performances.
STORY
Chongqing municipality, central China, 11 Nov, about 22:00. In an old block of flats around a circular courtyard, ageing thief Li (Fan Wei) breaks into dusty No. 307 but cannot find anything worth stealing. Meanwhile, two smartly dressed men (Hu Ming, Cai Lu) walk up the stairs and briefly wait outside No. 307 before going away. Soon afterwards, a man (Zhang Songwen) and a woman (Zhu Zhu) enter No. 307 and, while she goes to the toilet, he hears the sound of Li hiding in the flat. In his scrambling to hide himself, Li hits his head on some furniture and goes dizzy, finally hiding under a bed where he passes out. Li wakes to see a dead woman on the floor next to him. Meanwhile, the man, who has a gun, is bandaging his bleeding hand. Li overpowers him, takes the gun, and ties him up; but then a food-delivery boy with a black eye, Ma Mingliang (Dou Xiao), enters the room, claiming he was knocked out as he arrived with his order. The bound man accuses Li of killing his wife; he then regains control of the gun and ties Li up, also telling Ma Mingliang that a couple of days ago a newly-wed couple were murdered elsewhere in the city by a thief posing as a delivery boy. In a fight between the three, the man dies. Panicking, Ma Mingliang swears to Li that the murderer of the newly-weds wasn’t him. (Earlier, Ma Mingliang had arrived at No. 307 with his order and been knocked out by the man. Waking up, he had seen the woman’s body and also Li.) Li tells Ma Mingliang that they’ll both be blamed for the murder of the woman and the man, so they had best make a run for it. However, Li then accidentally sees plastic bags full of RMB100 notes in the freezer – plus more bundles of notes in Ma Mingliang’s food-delivery bag. (Sometime earlier, Ma Mingliang had arrived at the block on his scooter and taken the bundles of notes from the boot of a red car in which the woman was waiting. She had been on the phone to a wealthy man inside the block of flats, inviting him out to a surprise dinner. She had told Ma Mingliang that she’s only just discovered the address – from an electricity bill the man had asked her to pay – and that the man deliberately lived in the dump to hide his money. Ma Mingliang had gone up to No. 307 and on his way seen a man leaving the flat and Li arriving. While the man had collected the woman from the car, Li had broken into No. 307. When the man and woman had returned to the flat, she had gone to the toilet and called Ma Mingliang, telling him to run for it. The man had then shot the woman, and when Ma Mingliang arrived at the flat the man had knocked him out.) Li shows Ma Mingliang the stash of cash in the freezer, and Ma Mingliang gives him an explanation. But as they decide what to do, they suddenly discover there’s another person (Liang Chao), bound and gagged, in the flat.
REVIEW
Tianjin-born film-maker Liu Xiang 刘翔, 39, makes an impressive feature debut with lightly comic crime puzzler Knock Knock 不速来客, which he not only directed and co-wrote but also shot. Creatively produced 监制 by veteran Tian Zhuangzhuang 田壮壮, it’s the kind of clever head-scratcher that was more popular in the Mainland a decade ago than nowadays, leading the viewer up the garden path, backtracking on the narrative and then ending explosively when all is finally revealed. That’s not to demean Liu’s considerable accomplishment, as his is a superior example of the sub-genre, maintains interest almost the whole way (no mean feat) and, given its fine performances and limited location (mostly inside a single flat), almost has the feel of a play. With veteran comedian Fan Wei 范伟 in fine fettle as the scruffy lead, and surprisingly strong playing by Mainland-born, Vancouver-raised Dou Xiao 窦骁 [Shawn Dou], it deserved to take more than the blah RMB67 million it pocketed this autumn.
Liu studied photography at French film school 3iS, graduating in 2012 and thereafter working as d.p. on the short Shanghai Love Story 上海爱情故事 (2013, dir. Wang Jing 王婧). After shooting the feature Erdos Rider 鄂尔多斯骑士 (2015, dir. He Jia 禾家), he seems to have then concentrated on Knock Knock, with the film (then called 眼见为虚, literally “Seeing Is an Illusion”) passed for filming in autumn 2019. Co-written with Long Ye 龙也 (pen name of Zhang Long 张龙), who’s also credited with the original story, the script wastes no time getting down to business, as scruffy old thief Li (Fan) breaks into a grubby flat in an old courtyard block in Chongqing but can’t find anything valuable to steal. Meanwhile, two smartly dressed men come up the stairs and wait outside for a while; and then a man and a woman enter the flat, forcing Li to hide. In the process he knocks himself dizzy on a piece of furniture and blanks out under a bed.
That’s just the action before the main title. Subsequently, Li remains in the flat as various characters come and go, he or others take control of the situation, and a big stash of cash is discovered. Every now and then, the action – which is basically played in real time, from about 22:00 to 23:00 something – backtracks to fill in some background and lead the viewer in another direction. The first major flashback comes about 25 minutes in, followed by an explanatory section that answers some immediate queries. It’s a tribute to the way in which the writers manger to keep all their balls in the air that the film hardly loses any momentum after this – and in fact is re-energised a few minutes later by another surprise. This moves the dramatic centre of gravity towards another actor for a while but Fan subsequently “returns” to normalise the balance.
Hidden under greying locks and specs, Fan gives his usual acting class in sly, understated humour, and manages to keep the viewer half in the dark about his real intentions. He’s well matched by other veterans like Hu Ming 胡明 (the stranger in To Kill a Watermelon 杀瓜, 2017) as a big boss/crook and the dependable Zhang Songwen 张颂文 (The Shadow Play 风中有朵雨做的云, 2018; The Pioneer 革命者, 2021) as a mystery man with a gun. Comic Liang Chao 梁超 (the eponymous guru in The Breakup Guru 分手大师, 2014; gang boss in Lie Detector 测谎人, 2021), here with white hair, injects the film’s second half with plenty of energy, but it’s Dou (Under the Hawthorn Tree 山楂树之恋, 2010; Skyfire 天•火, 2019), not always the most expressive of actors, who’s the biggest surprise as the wimpy delivery boy who’s much more than he seems. In an almost all-male cast, Zhu Zhu 朱珠 (The Old Cinderella 脱轨时代, 2014; horror Apparition 恶灵之门, 2014) holds her own in a modest but well-etched part as a mystery woman.
Liu’s widescreen imagery gets the most from the night-time setting and the dusty, grey flat, with the fought-over red RMB100 notes bringing a vivid touch of colour to the proceedings. Though the film’s comedic elements become stronger in the second half, the ending is rather dark. Like all such crime puzzlers, Knock Knock is highly contrived; but it does make sense and the performances and writing carry it almost faultlessly. The film’s Chinese title means “The Uninvited Guest(s)”.
CREDITS
Presented by Zhejiang Cat Eye Pictures (CN), Hangzhou Yanhun Network Technology (CN), Beijing Netease Film Culture (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Shanghai Yunfeng Culture Media (CN), Xuzhou Saren Film & TV Production (CN). Produced by Xuzhou Saren Film & TV Production (CN).
Script: Liu Xiang, Long Ye. Original story: Long Ye. Photography: Liu Xiang. Editing: Zhang Yifan. Music: Gao Xiaoyang, Li Bin, Gao Tianxiang. Art direction: Liu Jing. Styling: Liu Jing. Sound: Jiao Chuanglei, Wu Jiang. Action: Su Hang. Visual effects: Xu Ruizhi, Cui Haifu (Freedom Creatives).
Cast: Fan Wei (Li), Dou Xiao [Shawn Dou] (Ma Mingliang), Zhang Songwen (Yan Zheng), Liang Chao (You Dacheng), Hu Ming (Zhang Yaozhong), Gao Shang (Xiamao/Shrimpy, Yan Zheng’s assistant), Zhu Zhu (Lili), Cai Lu (Fei Shui/Chubbie, Zhang Yaozhong’s assistant), Liu Yantong (Yan Zheng’s daughter).
Premiere: Atlanta Film Festival (Cinematography Competition), US, 1 May 2021.
Release: China, 22 Oct 2021.