The Troubleshooters Zhang Guoli, Ge You, Ma Xiaoqing, Liang Tian, Pan Hong Director: Mi Jiashan
Rarely has a film captured the spirit of a city and an era as perceptively - and hilariously - as this satirical tale of three friends and their Three T Company.
The city is Beijing from the perspective of the capital's most celebrated modern chronicler, Wang Shuo, who adapted his novel into a screenplay with director and co-scenarist Mi Jiashan.
The time is 1988, just a decade into the nation's 'open door' policy and a year before the Tiananmen crackdown brought a sudden chill to the city's freewheeling ways.
It is a milieu uniquely suited to the troubleshooting trio of Yu Guan (Zhang Guoli), Ma Qing (Liang Tian) and Yang Zhong (Ge You, above right with Zhang, centre, and Liang), jobless pals approaching 30 who have discovered there's money to be made by doing others' emotional dirty work. The 'T' in their enterprise's name refers to the Putonghua pronunciation of the ideogram for 'ti' (which literally translates as 'on behalf of'). For a fee, the men are willing to 'expunge anxieties, solve problems and take the rap' on a customer's behalf.
The movie interweaves several assignments that, in addition to being exceedingly well crafted and highly entertaining, shed light on the condition of late 80s Peking Man (and Woman) with a truth that still resonates.