Film review: bespoke satirical comedy in Personal Tailor
Yvonne Teh
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 (2010) and (2012). He has also directed the romantic comedies (2008) and its 2010 sequel, both of which featured his favourite actor, Ge You, in the leading role.
But sees Feng and Ge return to satirical comedy, a genre that has proved to be their forte, with films such as (2001) and (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 team's tendency to slip in and out of character at the drop of a hat.
In three fuller sections (entitled "Honest Instincts", "Bloody Vulgar" and "Mo' Money"), Zhong and the team - for whom "delusion is our business" - help a chauffeur (Fan Wei) who wants to prove that he would be an incorruptible official, a commercially successful director (Li Chengru) who wants to become an art-house auteur, and a poor cleaner (Song Dandan) who wants to taste the high life.
Ironically, given Feng's affinity with the client in "Bloody Vulgar", that middle episode is the weakest part of the film. But the story about the chauffeur, who immodestly believes that he would "make a great leader" and that "with absolute power, [he'd] demolish corruption for good", amuses with many pointed observations.
Saving the best for last, concludes with "All Apologies". In this largely serious and meditative episode, messages of regret and sadness come across as genuinely heartfelt, and endow the film with a surprising level of emotional depth.
The film still concludes on a jokey note. But intrigues because a genuine sense of outrage fills the air at some of the disgraceful behaviour on display. It makes real-life parallels with the powerful and wealthy echelons of mainland society.
Perhaps the filmmakers gave it a cheeky veneer to sugarcoat its comments on government corruption and environmental degradation, observations that otherwise may have been a pill too bitter to swallow for some.
opens on January 23
