It’s a night like any other in a Chinese city like any other: the shy clerk, Li Junwei (played by one of China’s top teen pop idols, Kimi Qiao), is on duty alongside fellow clerk Tang Xiaolian (Li Xiaolu), who he secretly films with his cellphone, and whom he has long loved from afar, never finding the courage to confess his feelings. The monotony of the evening is suddenly shattered, indisputably and definitively, by the arrival of He Shanshui (Xu Zheng), hysterical and in search of revenge. Or rather, looking for a payout: he wants the 9,500 RMB from a winning lottery ticket that he couldn’t claim because of an error made by the owner of the supermarket.
Unable to find the owner, who is off gambling, He decides to hold the two store clerks hostage with the help of his two thuggish but naive pals. The plan then involves taking their place at the cash tills, pocketing the night’s takings until the sum he would have won has been covered.
From this moment forth, chaos reigns supreme in the supermarket: as the hours pass, and the night shift drags on, He’s agitation grows, leading to a succession of tragicomic incidents. The return of the supermarket owner and the arrival of a real thief further complicate matters, until a twist in the tale brings events to a head. Over the course of the night, certain unconfessed truths surface, alliances are created and broken, the bonds tying the various characters together change continuously, and everyone present reveals both the best and the worst of themselves. Basically, just imagine a demented version of Dog Day Afternoon. It wears its stylistic and narrative references to Ning Hao’s black comedies and to the Korean film Attack The Gas Station! by Kim Sang-Jin on its sleeve, but this takes nothing away from the genuine comic flair of the movie. The whole film revolves around the character of He; excellently played by Xu Zheng, who also designed the costumes and the actions sequences, he is the incarnation of the anti-hero, forced to face challenges beyond his depths, despite himself. The supporting cast is just as effective in portraying characters somewhat outside the box, but credible nevertheless. The film, produced with a budget of only 2.5 million RMB and shot in less than a month in a single location, is the directorial debut of Yang Qing, a young but already experienced screenwriter and TV director.
Maria Barbieri