走走停停

English Title: G for Gap

Original Title: Zou zou ting ting 走走停停

Year: 2024

Country: China

Language: Mandarin

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family

Director: Long Fei 龙飞

Screenwriter: Huang Jia 黄佳

Music: Gao Xiaoyang 高小阳

Cinematography: Chen Jun 陈军

Editor: Zhang Zhao 张钊

Cast:

Hu Ge 胡歌

Gao Yuanyuan 高圆圆

Yue Hong 岳红

Zhou Yemang 周野芒

Jin Jing 金靖

Liu Jun 刘钧

Gan Yunchen 甘昀宸

Liu Yiwei 刘仪伟

Zhang Luyi 张鲁一

Yuan Hong 袁弘

Wang Zhen'er 王真儿

He Ziming 赫子铭

Xiao Ai 小爱

Rating: 7.3/1

G FOR GAP, the sophomore feature from Chinese director Long Fei and scenarist Huang Jia, after COUCH BOY (2017), enters the mainstream purview for starring two matinee names Hu Ge and Gao Yuanyuan (the latter returns to the big screen after an almost 10-year self-imposed hiatus).

Edging towards 40, Wu Di (Hu), a screenwriter who has been struggling in Beijing for 10 years, dumped by his girlfriend and with no immediate breakthrough in sight, returns to his hometown to stay with his parents (the title refers to Wu’s self-declared “gap year” in his career). Encouraged by his erstwhile schoolmate Feng Liuliu (Gao), a divorced TV documentarian, he sets out to direct a black-and-white art film on a shoestring budget, which is based on his own script about a romance in the twilight years. Wu Di enlists his mother (Yue) as the female protagonist, playing opposite to a has-been stage thespian Li Yuan (Liu), much to the displeasure of his father (Zhou).

Simultaneously, Liuliu also shots a documentary with Wu Di as its subject, observing his current directorial enterprise, recording the dynamism of his family members, also interviewing him about his experiences of trying to make it in the capital and fail and how to cope with staying with his parents as a boomeranger. A fairly meaningful topic which can find resonances in many people like him. And Wu Di puts on a sanguine face and gives his honest reflections on all of it. However what awaits him is a rough ride of bereavements and deprecation. Both his debut film and the documentary would not wind up as he expects, not even the tangible romantic sparks between him and Liuliu could survive that.

Seldom a mainstream Chinese film dares to hinge its story entirely on a “loser” who is going to win neither a decisive career victory nor the girl he likes. But Wu Di isn’t going anywhere, writing a new script while working as a taxi driver, eventually he learns to make a compromise between holding on to his dreams and living his life with a more grounded understanding. The final wordless encounter between him and Liuliu - a nose-to-tail grinding of two vehicles in the heavy traffic - is perfectly pertinent to the film’s original Chinese title (literally means “walk and stop”). If their worlds have drifted apart (one moves on and the other doesn’t), even simple pleasantries feel like an awkward imposition.

If its story isn’t an uplifting one, G FOR GAP wondrously inputs profuse wry humor into it. From Wu Di’s nonchalant attitude of being plagiarized, his feel-goody optimism, to his family’s unique and droll vibes (as Wu Di’s butch sister, Jin Jing is a brilliant comic relief, and her Uranian bent is well implicated. Only if we could get more info about her wavelength, after all, the unexpected tragedy strikes as equally hard to her as to her brother), to the amusing incidents of shooting the film. Humor is the antidote of quotidian disappointment and G FOR GAP is remarkably restrained apropos of outpourings. Wu Di’s massage sofa scene is expected to be a tearjerking moment, but instead, it is a tacit smile that brings a son closer to his mom, to experience her moment of small joy. Also his father’s cross-dressing montage is a high point of concretizing emotion through the impact of imagery rather than letting the actor act all out.

That said, the cast understands their task perfectly, theatricals are kept in the low temperature (saving for the funny discord between a director and his leading actor). Hu Ge is totally approachable and seems relaxed, eking out an ordinary guy persona swimmingly. Gao Yuanyuan always has a distinct aura of her own despite of limited chops. Her beauty is inviolable even time has left its marks on her, and Liuliu is a role rather fitting for her. Only someone of her purity can obviate an oral apology to Wu Di for the distorted version of the documentary. She simply justifies it with her action, not well-chosen words, and we buy it voluntarily.

Yet, it is Yue Hong’s performance as Wu Di’s mother Jiang Meiling that becomes the backbone of the film. She exceptionally nails the sense of proportion in juggling between a supportive mother and a woman thrilled by a reignited passion, and enunciates well-thought maxims one after another without any pretension. That is why when that coup de théâtre transpires, it renders viewers thunderstruck. Yue Hong has hitherto made such an indelible impression, so her sudden departure becomes such a bummer that it self-sabotages the credibility of the film and beg the question of abusing a filmmaker’s artistic license. All in all, G FOR GAP (much better than its alternative English title GOLD OR SHIT) is a finely conceived and constructed Chinese film with a difference. It is witty, earnest, anti-sensational, and most of all, it tries to mirror the current milieu with high fidelity and engage audience to mull over it afterwards.

referential entries: Diao Yi’nan‘s THE WILD GOOSE LAKE (2019, 7.2/10); Johnnie To's BLIND DETECTIVE (2013, 7.2/10); Wei Shujun’s RIPPLES OF LIFE (2021, 7.2/10).