previously published on Asian Movie Pulse
It
rarely happens in the film world that a filmmaker has a debut and
sophomore feature all in the same year and in span of a few months.
Screenwriter by trade with some TV and one feature film credit under
his belt, Zhang Chong
debuted as a director with a fantastic, slightly operatic cautionary
tale-type drama "Super Me" that world-premiered at Sitges
before its distribution at home turf in China and the subsequent
festival run, where we caught it at Paris International Fantastic
Film Festival by the courtesy of Fortissimo Films. Zhang’s second
feature, co-directed with Zhang Bo,
"The Fourth Wall", was awarded the Bronze Pyramid at Cairo,
and will be the topic of some other review.
"Super
Me"’s protagonist, Sang Yu, played by the young Taiwanese
actor Wang Talu
(also known as Darren Wang),
seems like a perfect man for a modern day Chinese and global
capitalism: highly motivated and able to work constantly under severe
stress, but his lifestyle is beginning to take a toll on his mental
health. He has not been sleeping for more than six months. As soon as
closes his eyes, a masked demon comes to kill him in his dreams, so
he wakes up in terror. He is at his wits’ end, having already lost
his job, a place to sleep and a primary mean to earn his rent – his
computer.
Then
he realizes that he has a super-power to bring some objects from his
dreams back to reality. Since they are all antiques and treasures, he
becomes rich over night. And as he progresses as a proper Indiana
Jones of the dreamworld, being more and more in control of his
dreams, he gets richer and richer, more and more successful and
famous. That draws the attention of some interested parties, like his
former work partner San Ge (Cao Bingkun)
and a relentless coffee-shop owner Hua Er (Song
Jiu) who serves as his love interest
from early on, but also a cohort of gangsters lead by the ruthless
Qiang Ge (Wu Gang).
By
its looks and mechanics, "Super Me" is a typical case of
mainland Chinese repertoire movie aimed at wide audience. It is
operatic in tone, powered by overly expressive acting on the verge of
affectation especially by Wang and laced with plenty of
cheap-looking, but still efficient CGI and with the emotion dictated
by way too loud and overused music cues. However, it is nice to look
at, thanks to the camerawork by Saba
Mazloun and the set design by Giancarlo
Derchie, easy to follow and overall an
interesting watch for a period of time.
What
it works against it are the dramaturgical laws, which is strange,
knowing Zhang’s background as a screenwriter that he projects even
to his protagonist. The trouble is that we as the audience know that
there has to be some flip side to Sang’s overnight richness, but
Zhang takes too much time to get to the point, insisting on
repetitions with minimal gradation instead. Truth to be told, the
montage sequences Zhang relies on are not repetitive themselves, but
their point is pretty much the same. Also, the love story never kicks
in properly, and the same goes for the meta-moment of Sang and San Ge
being the film professionals.
Nonsensical
ending with a number of plot twists thrown at the audience does not
help either, since it is more or less a late attempt to add some
layers to a simple story that should remain simple in its basic
construction. The story needed more work on the details within it,
action sequences could be longer (since it seems Zhang enjoys
directing them), while the whole effort in making a point on a
universal level seems a bit uncalled for. But even so, "Super
Me" is not a complete waste of time.
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