‘YOLO’ is the story of a woman’s triumph
IGOT to watch the box-office hit YOLO, a Chinese movie starring Jia Ling, who also directed the movie, a few days before its commercial run. I was so excited to see it for so many reasons. Jia Ling reportedly lost 50kg to make the feel good movie but losing weight is not what it’s about. I was prepared to be annoyed at the movie, which is about an overweight underachieving pushover (you kind of see where this is going) woman in her 30s. She still lives with her family. She has a boyfriend who is cheating on her with her best friend. She also has an adorable niece, whose mother, her sister, wants to get an apartment that our heroine inherited from their grandmother.
Oh, there’s also a cousin who wants to make a story out of her fatness and laziness for a reality show.
At this point, Du Leying (played by Jia Ling) has nothing left to live for, especially after she and her sister get into a fistfight over the apartment.
Du Leying decides to leave home. She calls her boyfriend and her best friend (who is now pregnant) to talk to them about her predicament. What happens is that they tell her that they’re together and getting married soon. Du Leying finds an apartment, a job as a waitress at a small restaurant, and accidentally sees a boxing coach from the gym beside her workplace peeing on a wall.
The film—known in Chinese as Re la guntang (Hot and spicy)—follows Du Leying as she navigates life and her desire to win at least once in her life.
I was iffy when the screening organized by Columbia Pictures Philippines started because I thought the movie would be about Du Leying losing weight and suddenly, she would be more beautiful and desirable.
In February 2024, Jia Ling wrote on Weibo: “It’s not a diet movie, it’s not even about boxing.” I believe her. It’s not about weight or boxing. Rather, it’s about a loser trying to score a win for once in her life.
Jia Ling’s movie is not about feminism. It’s about
nd coping with heartache, disappointment, rejection, and many other crappy things that life brings and finding peace with it. Du Leying literally and figuratively takes the punches many times in the movie but she stands up every time and makes sure that she gets on the saddle again.
Jia Ling previously directed the 2021 Lunar New Year smash hit Hi, Mom. Short for the phrase “You Only Live Once”, YOLO was the highest-grossing film over the Lunar New Year according to Alibaba Pictures’ promotion and distribution platform Beacon.
According to Tmall, the world’s largest third-party online and mobile marketplace for retailers, sales of boxing gloves and punching bags between February 10 and 19 increased 60 percent and 40 percent, respectively, from the same period last year. This suggests that YOLO made Chinese people interested in boxing.
Why did YOLO have such an impact in China? One, Du Liyeng is a character you’ll root for. I could relate to her and her struggles with being an under achiever. I can imagine that a lot of Chinese people could relate to her, too.
Two, there’s romance and it’s intense but for Du Liyeng, it does not define her. The two men she loved broke her heart but that wasn’t her motivation for working out and becoming stronger physically.
Three, filial piety is very important in China. Even if her family disappointed her, Du Liyeng came home when her father came to her and told her that they needed her. Four, there is no ugly-fat-girl-transformsinto-a-hottie. The transformation is from a girl who didn’t know what she wanted out of life to a strong person with goals and abs.
The movie is not perfect. The old Du Liyeng, in my opinion, wasn’t that fat. She was just out of shape. I also wondered where she got the money to finance her boyfriend’s training since her income was quite meager. This was never explained.
But despite these little flaws, the movie is entertaining and the story unfolds to alternately make you happy, angry and sad. The part near the end where Du Liyeng has flashbacks of the things she endured will not fail to move anyone. The scene tells you that she may be the underdog but she remained kind and compassionate.
The movie, which is rated R-13, is still showing in Philippine cinemas. ■