Be There or Be Square

Basically a re-tread of the formula in director Feng Xiaogang’s previous hit Party A, Party B, it’s a great showcase for its two stars – China’s top comic Ge You (Farewell My Concubine) and young actress Xu Fan (the sexy wife in episode three of Spicy Love Soup). Set over the space of two years, the film throws together the happy-go-lucky Liu (Ge), an insurance salesman who lives in a trailer park, with the more serious Li (Xu), whom he meets when a film crew wrecks a house she is minding while the owners are away. It’s the start of an on-off love-hate relationship in which she is always threatening to go back to Beijing and he is always one step away from being involved in illegal activity. Beneath the comedy, and the terrific playing by both leads, the movie is packed with small insights into the life of Overseas Chinese trying to make it in an essentially hostile environment. (There’s a running joke that LAis full of muggers, burglars and robbers.) However, as a relationships comedy, this smoothly directed pic ture could be set anywhere.

Derek Elley