Ning Hao's comedy takes two buddies across changing mainland

Two of the mainland's most successful comedies in recent years were made, separately, by good buddies Xu Zheng and Ning Hao, with Huang Bo and the multi-talented Xu starring in both films.

Directed and co-written by Xu, Lost in Thailand (2012) became the mainland's all-time top box office grosser with total takings of 1.26 billion yuan (HK$1.59 billion), while Ning's Breakup Buddies was the box office champ of the recent Golden Week, reaping 579 million yuan in its first six days of release.

Ning has been compared to Judd Apatow, the American director-writer-producer of "brathouse comedies" such as Superbad and Pineapple Express. Both filmmakers send their buddies on wayward adventures while making us like them no matter what they get up to.

Surprisingly, Ning says he has never heard of Apatow when we meet in Toronto, where Breakup Buddies has its world premiere. "I don't watch many movies, I used to watch more," he admits.

While Ning claims to love the violent mayhem of Quentin Tarantino, John Woo Yu-sum, Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho, he says China has its own tradition of buddy comedies in the Qinqiang operas which originated in the Tang dynasty. "It's a bit like Punch and Judy where live actors work off each other. Peking opera said they'd lost the tradition, but it's evolving and changing and is alive. There is a need for comedy in our lives."

The protagonists in Breakup Buddies are an ill-matched pair, leading to the absurdist humour Ning adores. Geng Hao (Huang) is a sensitive soul dealing with the emotional aftermath of a messy divorce; he would rather still be married. His unlikely best friend, playboy Hao Yi (Xu), is determined to show Geng Hao the ways of the modern world. He suggests they go for a jaunt across the country - and get laid as much as possible.