Film review: Go Lala Go! - a vapid Sex and the City in China

The recurring panorama of Beijing's new Manhattan-esque skyline, the Patricia Fields-designed wardrobe, and a protagonist who likes her shoes and shares her travails online - it's evident that the makers of Go Lala Go! had a certain American comedy in mind when they made this film about a young woman's tribulations in love and life in a glistening metropolis.

Unfortunately, however, Xu Jinglei and her team have seemingly skipped the good bits of Sex and the City for inspiration for more vapid fare.

If it were not inundated with product placements - it's difficult to ignore the lingering shots of boutiques, billboards and branded teacups - you could be forgiven for thinking Go Lala Go! is set in some la-la-land where sun, sand and shopping reign supreme.

Even then, it comes as a shock to see scenes in which an employee jibes at her workmate about 'not offending colleagues because they might become your boss' wife', and the way a supposedly modern, liberated and independent woman is seen splashing out on clothes and convertibles when the going starts to get tough.

The said staunch follower of retail therapy is Lala (played by Xu), who begins the film as a trainee in the Chinese bureau of a fledging American multinational. Exactly what this company does to become a top-ranking business remains a mystery - never let complex details get in the way of a simple story, the filmmakers seem to say. Somehow, Lala is able to climb the corporate ladder, even as she woos the company's hunky sales director, David (Taiwanese singer Stanley Huang, below with Xu), fresh from a failed romance with Rose (Karen Mok) - who, of course, happens to be one of Lala's superiors.