PERSONAL TAILOR
Starring: Ge You, Bai Baihe, Li Xiaolu, Zheng Kai
Director: Feng Xiaogang
Category: I (Putonghua)
Feng Xiaogang has ventured into the realm of big-budget disaster dramas in recent years, with Aftershock (2010) and Back to 1942 (2012). He has also directed the romantic comedies If You Are the One (2008) and its 2010 sequel, both of which featured his favourite actor, Ge You, in the leading role.
But Personal Tailor sees Feng and Ge return to satirical comedy, a genre that has proved to be their forte, with films such as Big Shot's Funeral (2001) and Cell Phone (2003).
Working from a script by novelist Wang Shuo, Feng's latest film revolves around a Hainan Island-based company whose staff - dream planner Zhong Yang (Ge), scenario designer Miss Bai (Bai Baihe), dream builder Lu Xiaolu (Li Xiaolu), and mind anaesthetist Ma Qing (Zheng Kai) - help their clients live out their fantasies by creating elaborate role-playing scenarios tailored to their needs.
Structured episodically, the film gets going with a black-and-white teaser segment that features Nazis. The enactment turns out to be an illegal detention fantasy of a woman with a martyr complex (Miao Pu).
Outrageous and slickly executed, it sets the tone for the rest of the movie, and foreshadows the Personal Tailor team's tendency to slip in and out of character at the drop of a hat.