GALAXY WRITER
Starring: Song Muzi, He Wenjun Director: Li Kuo, Shan Dandan Category: IIA (Mandarin) 2/5 stars
Films about filmmaking are nearly as old as the medium itself, yet remain a popular subgenre. At once self-indulgent and celebratory, filmmakers repeatedly rise to the challenge, trying to convey what attracts them to the art form, despite its difficulty, cost, competition, and every other obstacle standing between them and success.
Such cautionary tales of quixotic endeavours seem especially popular with first-time filmmakers, which brings us to Galaxy Writer.
In 2023, fledgling writer-directors Li Kuo and Shan Dandan won the Grand Prix at Beijing’s First International Film Festival, an event created to support and champion new young filmmakers.
Drawn, one suspects, very much from their own experiences, the film follows a pair of best friends and wannabe screenwriters as they try to bring their sci-fi action epic “Seven Seconds Man” to fruition.
After moving to Beijing, the epicentre of the China’s booming film industry, Liaoyi (Song Muzi) and Tan (He Wenjun) must negotiate a treacherous road of charlatan producers and commercially driven industry drones dead set on taking the boys’ beloved masterpiece and distorting it into just another slice of soulless corporate content.
Their tight group of similarly inexperienced friends can offer precious little insight into how best to achieve their goal, while the endless rewrites soon take a toll on Liaoyi and Tan’s relationship.
Propelled by an energetic and irreverent tone, Galaxy Writer makes for an occasionally amusing diversion, but the satirical insight into the machinations of the industry is mostly tame and obvious.
The writers’ obsession with the genius of Christopher Nolan provides fertile soil for sly observations about fandom and geek culture, but other than Liaoyi meeting the girl of his dreams (Li Wenru) at a screening of The Dark Knight, the opportunity is largely squandered.
More promising is the unfolding soap opera between the various members of their little clique of aspiring artistes, especially their friend Bug (Li Fei), whose extreme commitment to living the life of a suffering actor sees his girlfriend (Liu Moran) begin a secret affair with another member of the group.
For an audience of their peers, who have yet to fall foul of life’s pitfalls and lose their optimism, Li and Shan’s film may play well and their quirky, high-energy perspective seem fresh and revelatory.
But for anyone who has been around the block, and had their dreams dashed on the rocks of reality more than once, Galaxy Writer plays an all-too-familiar tune.
Galaxy Writer opens in cinemas today