Summary
It’s hard to come up with an original take on a romantic comedy, so why try too hard? This manual plays it strictly by the book, but is predictable in its infectious laughs.
If nothing else, DUDE’S MANUAL (脱单告急) proves the universality of rom-com concepts. Or romcepts if you prefer. Taiwanese director Kevin Ko (Invitation Only) and writer Ren Peng find a groove somewhere in the nexus of American Pie and Tori Girl, albeit with some dated notions of male/female roles. Yet even in this weird Venn Diagram, it still winds up hitting kind of sweet spot in the middle.
He Xiaoyang (Dong Zijian) has a dilemma as old as time. He’s been single and virginal for four years of college, thanks largely to a sex doll mishap that earned him the nickname ‘Air Pump.’ After a rumour spreads that he and popular girl Guan Xin (Elane Zhong) are together, the latter is determined to find him a girlfriend to quash any more scuttlebutt. Together they set their sights on the woman of He Xiaoyang’s dreams, the beautiful pianist Li Shu Shu (Jessie Li). However, their carefully laid plans for falling in love may be pointed in the wrong direction.
While the opening sequence tries to trick us into believing the film might be about a serial killer for some reason, you would be forgiven for expecting the expected. In fact, from the moment Guan Xin enters He Xiaoyang’s life, vomiting on his t-shirt and rolling around with him on the bathroom floor, filmmaker Kevin Ko keeps his film on a pretty steady stylistic track. Like a more chaste version of Crazy Stupid Love, Guan Xin’s training makes He Xiaoyang a hit with the ladies, but it also begins to tickle her jealousy bone. We know what the outcome is going to be from the start, and it’s a matter of simply pacing out the hijinks on the way there.
So it’s great that there are moments when the filmmakers have a bit of fun with the visuals. During one nightclub seduction scene, Ko uses a freeze-frame/bullet time technique to break down the players in the room. Later, a movie date is analysed in terms of the five quadrants that couples take up, visualised on screen with white dotted lines. The popcorn zone will now forever be known as the ‘No Man’s Land.’ He Xiaoyang is an aeronautical engineer, you see, so breaking down relationships into maths problems makes sense.
The gender normative depiction of men and women is a little problematic. Guan Xin is labelled “that girl” after a scurrilous rumour begins, while He Xiaoyang is viewed by his friends as finally “manning up.” Indeed, the whole plot is effectively a group stalking session of a hapless woman. This informs the tropey performances of the leads, from the the meek Dong Zi Jian, to the fierce Elane Zhong, and a relatively docile Jessie Li (who impressed audiences in Port of Call).
DUDE’S MANUAL builds to a conclusion that rivals Grease in its airborne romanticism, with special effects that don’t seem to be any more sophisticated than 1978. It’s completely ridiculous and plays straight into cliche, but leaves us with a philosophical puzzle that future scholars may one day unpack: “What’s so different between planes and girls?”
2018 | China | DIRECTOR: Kevin Ko | WRITERS: Ren Peng | CAST: Dong Zijian, Elane Zhong, Jessie Li | DISTRIBUTOR: Magnum Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 20 April 2018 (AUS)
