Although it is freezing cold this winter, it is worth while for moviegoers to venture out for Feng Xiaogang's new comic flick, "Big Shot's Funeral" (Da Wan'r).
The film starts showing on Friday in most of the first-run movie theatres across the country.
As in his previous comic films, Feng directs a star-studded cast, members of which come not only from the Chinese mainland but from Hong Kong and Hollywood as well.
Star-studded cast
Ge You, Feng's long-time collaborator in a string of successful comedies including "Dreams Come True" and "Be There or Be Square," plays the lead protagonist, Yo-yo, a documentary cameraman.
Feng also has enlisted actor-director Ying Da and famous Hong Kong actress Rosamund Kwan Chi-lam. Ying, best known for his direction of the television sit-coms "I Love My Family" and "Sister Ma, the Idler," plays the role of Louis Wang, a scheming concert planner/promoter whom Yo-yo hires for a funeral.
Kwan, who rose to stardom mainly with Tsui Hark films such as "Once Upon a Time in China" takes up the role of lead actress Lucy, a tough-minded personal assistant to the "big shot."
The gravel-voiced perennial Donald Sutherland and veteran actor-director Paul Mazursky from Hollywood also join the cast.
Sutherland, whose recent movies include "JFK," "A Time to Kill," "Outbreak," "Space Cowboys" and "Final Fantasy," plays world-famous director Don Tyler - the "da wan'r'" (big shot) in northern China dialect.
In the film, Sutherland becomes emotionally paralyzed while remaking Bernardo Bertolucci's epic movie "The Last Emperor."
A Hollywood legend in real life, Paul Mazursky, an actor-director whose impressive credits include "Down and Out In Beverly Hills" and the Oscar-nominated "An Unmarried Woman," plays Tony, the studio executive who fires Tyler.
Plot out of a joke
The 90-minute dark comedy starts off with scenes of the Forbidden City.
But it eventually turns into an absurd farce.
The original idea of the film came from a joke between Feng and director Chen Kaige ("Farewell to My Concubine") about the funeral for a celebrity, Feng recalled.
In "Big Shot's Funeral," some of the funniest lines and truly excellent acting crop up when Ge and Sutherland play off each other.
Frustrated by an unco-operative muse and anxious to depart from the Italian master's portrayal of the boy emperor Pu Yi, Tyler halts his production and spirals into an existential dilemma. The film studio fires him and replaces him with a young Japanese music video director.
Then, after suffering a sudden stroke, Tyler is presumed to be dying. Before calamity strikes, he develops an affectionate, if monosyllabic, relationship with Yo-yo.
Almost completely incapable of understanding each other due to language barriers, the two men form a fast and sincere bond, resulting in an amusing tangle of miscommunication, whereby Tyler asks Yo-yo to arrange a "comedy funeral" for him.
The request is video-recorded, hence notarized, with Yo-yo's 16-millimetre camera.
The now unemployed cameraman takes the director's dying wish earnestly and proceeds to organize a funeral for the comatose American.
But when Yo-yo discovers that Tyler's estate is completely bankrupt and unable to pay for the funeral, the film takes a hilarious left turn into social satire:
Yo-yo hits upon an idea to fund the funeral with corporate sponsorships and product placements.
The sale of advertising for the funeral somehow gets ahead of the actual demise of the director.
The sponsors' giant blowup ads and billboards are already in place when Tyler's unexpected recovery leads to an ending that everyone has sworn not to reveal.
"'Big Shot's Funeral' shows just how advertising has saturated every part of life and exposes in an exaggerated manner people's insane lust for money," Feng explained.
For a director often accused of lacking substance in favour of cheap jokes, it must be noted that black humour doesn't get much darker than this.
Romantic comedy
The star-studded cast has not failed Feng either, as Feng claims that all the performers have been "loyal" to his message.
With his trademark bald head and poker-faced humour, Ge You acts just as well as always.
In what is essentially a romantic comedy buried in a subplot, Kwan delivers a very impressive performance, playing the US-born Lucy who serves as an antagonist as well as romantic foil to the increasingly out-of-control Yo-yo.
Although greatly disturbed by Yo-yo's wild "concepts" for Tyler's funeral, the more she attempts to reign him in, the less she can resist the lovable, well-meaning buffoon. Ying gives a stand-out performance in the role of Louis Wang, the stout, man with dyed, yellowish hair. Feng said Ying's performance exceeded expectations.
The two American "big shots," though in minor roles, each deliver a commendable performance.
Attack on commercialism?
"The depicted madness of rampant commercialism and ubiquitous advertising rings true in present-day China," Feng said.
Ironically, at the same time, the director has not been shy about acquiring sponsorships, ranging from deluxe sedans to expensive cigarette brands for "Big Shot."
His previous movies, including the tragic comedy "A Sigh," carry even more overt commercial tie-ins, which did greatly help finance his movies.
From his first big hit in 1997, "Dreams Come True," Feng has used a unique style relying heavily on dialogue.
Feng brings his every-man philosophy to the screen, usually embodied by Feng's on-screen persona, Ge You, hawking daily truths with gritty northern China streetwise wit.
He has not yet failed to elicit guffaws from audiences from fade-in to fade-out.
The audience can easily identify Ge You's loquacious brand of humour as the defining shtick of a Feng Xiaogang-style movie.
The same is also true for "Big Shot," though some parts appear to be from an action movie thanks to the superb, visually beautiful camerawork of cinematographer Zhang Li.
Compared with Feng's early films, "Big Shot" is a bit more suspenseful due to a better-crafted script jointly written by veteran screenplay writer Li Xiaoming, Shi Kang and Feng himself.
The score by pop music composer, San Bao, who also wrote for Feng's previous films, and theme song by pop music diva Faye Wong both fit well with the tempo and tone of the story.
Funding for "Big Shot's Funeral" mainly came from Sony Pictures Entertainment, through its Hong Kong arm, Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, along with Beijing Huayi Brothers & Taihe Film Investment Co Ltd, and China Film Group.
The US$3.5 million production, arguably a low-budget project for Hollywood blockbuster directors, is huge for most Chinese directors whose average budget is about 3-5 million yuan (US$366,000-610,000).
With three of China's five top-grossing films under his belt - "Sorry, Baby" (1999), "Be There or Be Square" (1998) and "Dreams Come True" (or "Party A, Party B," 1997), Feng is widely considered one of China's most commercially successful directors.
Directing his most expensive comedy to date, the 43-year-old director admitted at the film's Beijing premiere last week that he "had worked under great pressure."
But he added that the hefty budget allowed him to rally some of the best film artists for his production crew and enabled him to seek better quality computerized animation processing, location settings and sound effects.
The injection of international funds also opened the eyes of the filmmaker.
"During my trips to Hong Kong and big cities, I am deeply impressed by my overseas investors and international partners, who, with their insight and expertise in film marketing, have designed hundreds of items for film publicity and developed numerous commercial tie-ins for 'Big Shot,'" Feng recalled.
This film could be Feng's most ambitious comedy, too.
The phenomenal Western success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which was mainly shot in scenic spots in the Chinese mainland and directed by Ang Lee, has tantalized other Asian filmmakers.
"Big Shot's Funeral" reportedly aims to appeal to both audiences in the East and the West with bountiful box office returns, according to the investors.
The movie is set to be distributed in December in Asian markets.
An English subtitled version is expected to be released in Western film markets, including the United States, early next year.
Judging from the preview, "Big Shot's Funeral" seems to be a sure bet at home, but what remains to be seen is how well his satirical touch will survive cultural and language barriers, local critics say.
(China Daily December 20, 2001)
