Hot
Pot is generally considered comfort food, but not in the subterranean restaurant
Liu Bo runs with his two school chums. Granted, they like it served spicy, a la
proper Sichuan style in Chongqing, but apparently not the way “Four Eyes”
simmers it up. Business is so bad, the three pals are desperate to sell-out.
When they inadvertently borrow into a bank vault during an unlicensed expansion
attempt, capers inevitably ensue in Yang Qing’s Chongqing Hot Pot (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.
Liu
lives at home with his exasperated mother, his somewhat addled but still
twinkling-eyed grandfather, and a mountain of gambling debts. Xu Dong is
relentlessly hassled by his status-conscious wife, whereas Four Eyes is eager
to try his luck in Beijing. Each could use some fast cash, but their cave-bound
eatery is too small to attract a buyer. Hoping to fix that, they wind up poking
their heads into the nearby bank’s vault, like Bugs Bunny.
As
it just so happened, an old classmate now works at the soulless, cliquey bank.
In fact, Yu Xiaohui once had a crush on Liu and vice versa, but her family relocated
before either could act on their crushes. Fearing fines and citations, Liu and
his pals conspire with Yu to sneak into the bank to fix the yet to be
discovered hole. It is pretty safe to conclude these dudes are the decent
sorts, since their big conspiracy revolves around structural repair work.
However, things get drastically complicated when real gun-toting bank-robbers
strike the bank at exactly the same time Liu’s Hot Pot gang were planning to run
their operation.
Chongqing gives the caper
movie template a clever, good-hearted twist. Yang does a lot to play with our
expectations, but there is a massive third act all-hands-on-deck beatdown that
is as good as any action movie released this year. Yet, the film is really all
about friendship and camaraderie, becoming much like comfort food itself in its
depiction of the four reunited classmates.
Having
starred in Monster Hunt, the highest
grossing Chinese film until the release of Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid, Bai Baihe has clearly already arrived in her home
territory. However, Chongqing could
be the film that really breaks her out internationally. She is terrific as Yu, conveying
her sweet vulnerability, but also giving her an edge. Chen Kun brings his usual
fierceness as Liu, but also develops some rather appealing chemistry with Bai. Although
Four Eyes is obviously a bit of a nebbish stock character, Yu Entai still
manages to scratch out some rather touching moments for him, but Qin Hao hardly
makes an impression as Xu Dong, the third guy.
