I was aware about this movie playing in Celestial Movies channel since beginning of the month, as it was promoted as part of their weekly premiere of new movies. The synopsis of the movie seemed very interesting as it suggested some kind of time travel and I know the main lead's comedic appearance earlier which should be fun. So I told my wife that I wanted to see this one last night and we had to be back before 9PM when the movie started. Well let us get on with the movie then.
Brief Story Line
Story was set in the year 2022 when Xu Tailang (Deng Chao - The Mermaid, The Breakup Guru, etc) won his first ever trophy of China Rally championship. Lang invited his father Xu Zhengtai (Eddie Peng - Rise of the Legend, Operation Mekong etc) to witness his triumph but he also had hidden personal agenda with his father. When Lang asked Zheng to accompany him in the car and experience first hand how it felt inside the speeding car, they had an accident where Lang would later be transported back to the year 1998 in the small town where his family lived. This would be the start of something very fun for Lang as he could explore and find out his family history.
Lang met with Zheng who was still very young and was a small time gang leader with his good friends Liu Yi (Gao Huayang) and Xiao Ma (Dong Zijian - Young Style, Mountains May Depart etc). There were some hilarious moments involving these misfits, but the best of it all was the chance for Lang to look for his mother whom he could not remember as she passed away when he was still a baby. However it would be very challenging for Lang as apparently Zheng had a girlfriend named Xiao Hua (Zhao Liying - The Journey of Flower and Princess Agents TV series etc) while Lang's mother name was completely different. Lang made it his mission to prevent Zheng marrying Xiao Hua.
So could Lang achieve his goal? Could he accept and understand his young father? And could he ever return to his own time? Find them all in this comedy drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I had huge expectation when watching this movie, with it being a commercial and critical success. It started very promising with the cool scene of Lang in a speeding car rallying across the difficult tracks and those amazing scenes of memories flashing in front of his eyes after the accident which were awesomely done. The middle part was a lot more comical, especially the craziness of Zheng in his younger days, with his small gang member friends who were despite very loyal, but not the best type of gangster at all and created some funny moments.
However, the movie was not full of hilarious moments only as it also had brief emotional moments especially before the end which involved Liu Yi, Lang and Zheng. The main attraction in the movie was obviously the relationship between Lang and his father whom he detested all his life and also his introduction with his mother. So the time travel thing was just a background thing, a vehicle (if you want to call it that) for the director/writer to provide Lang the opportunity to find out real history of his family. It was not a movie about time travel, or how to return back time or even to change history. This part I am still ok and not complained but I am a bit dissatisfied with the ending as it felt missing something which could probably make the movie even more emotional. But then again, I guessed that was not the intention.
Deng Chao as usual gave a comedic presence even when he was trying to be serious. I loved how he was able to perform more comedic role like in the movie The Mermaid or The Breakup Guru (which coincidentally were very successful commercially just like this one). It would seem that he was quite a guarantee if you want to have box office movies. It was a very long way since his very serious performance in 2003 The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre TV series where he played the main character of Zhang Wuji. Meanwhile Eddie Peng surprisingly was quite fun to see (I only saw him 1 or 2 times which were as serious characters). And last but not least, Zhao Liying was also fun to see in a comedic role as I only ever saw her in Princess Agents where she did lots of fighting, crying and dramatic scenes.
As a drama comedy movie, I think it was good enough. The comedy scenes sometimes were hilarious but other times just put smile on our face. The more emotional scenes were only in the end but not very very emotional ones (other people may bag to differ though). Another point to take note is the settings of 1990s did not seem convincing due to the costumes. There were one or two shirts that the male actors wearing seemed to be from 1970s rather than from 1998. There were also reference of some stuff popular years before 1998, such as pager, VHS etc but that was in line with the story line. And be sure to watch on the fact about Xiao Ma character. Oh ya there was 1 fun but a bit touching scene in the middle of end credit scene.
Finally, if you are looking for a comedy drama movie with some references from 1990s, then this movie is definitely worth to see. But do not expect a serious science fiction movie about time travel as it was only background. This movie was quite brand new from 2017 and currently it is playing in Celestial Movies in the next few weeks, so you can still catch it there (or online streaming).
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
PS: I do not know why the title of the movie was Duckweed. Perhaps anybody can enlighten me?
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