Gao Xing
Guo Tao, Feng Li, Huang Bo, Tian Yuan, Miao Pu
Director: Kiefer Liu (Ah Gan)
The country bumpkin musical, a sub-genre whose demise in Hong Kong cinema coincided with the region's urbanisation, lives on across the border, but rarely as anarchically as in Gao Xing.
Set in Xian, the goofy shenanigans of a couple of hicks trying to make it in the big city are, like its protagonists, blissfully devoid of sophistication or refinement. The dance numbers are Bollywood on a mini-budget, more satirical than musical and infrequent enough not to wear out their welcome.
Crudeness is one of the movie's chief virtues, down to its low-tech special effects and lowbrow humour. The title, identical to the main character's name, literally translates as 'happy', a trait that refuses to be quashed no matter how shabby the living environment or debilitating the circumstances facing the movie's transplanted peasants.