‘Walking’ the Line
Director Dong Runnian spins a subversive, snarky workplace comedy, right up until he’s doesn’t.
Johnny Keep Walking!
Director: Dong Runnian • Writers: Ying Luojia, Dong Runnian
Starring: Da Peng, White-K, Zhuang Dafei, Wang Xun, Sun Yizhou
China • 1hr 57mins
Opens Hong Kong February 1 • I
Grade: B
Look at that poster art. Johnny Keep Walking! | 年會不能停！screams “wacky comedy”, one filled with the kind of pratfalls and misunderstandings that only happen in movies, designed to propel the story. Director Dong Runnian’s workplace comedy has been a massive hit at home in China and it’s easy to see why. Johnny is a run-of-the-mill, fish out of water, mistaken identity, Being There-type satire of Chinese work culture that no doubt resonates with a growing generation of office drones that are realising the corporate rat race is for shit and their bosses are probably dicks. It’s raked in US$134 million since its Christmastime release. Someone’s getting it.
The literal title – roughly meaning “the annual meeting can’t be stopped” – tells you all you need to know about where Johnny’s going to end, that and the horns and logo of the China Film Administration off the top. Dong and co-writer Ying Luojia come right up to the line in taking the piss out of megacorporations but ultimately have to pull back. The film ends as expected: the push toward a high value service economy that respects the crucial contributions of the working class, where corporations are run by benevolent CEOs who make things right as soon as they discover corruption among their VPs are both affirmed. Parasite, Trading Places and Severance this is not. But we knew it wouldn’t be.
The Magical Bumpkin
Fortunately, Johnny Keep Walking! is mostly funny enough to makes up for its anaemic messaging, and the better your Putonghua the funnier it will be (though the dialogue goes out of its way to explain things, just in case). Hu Jianlin (Da Peng, Dust to Dust) is a provincial factory worker at the sprawling Zhonghe Group’s machine parts plant in an unnamed mid-sized town. When high ranking exec Pete (Sun Yizhou) drunkenly swaps Jianlin’s application for the annual company talent show gala – the meeting of the title – for factory manager Zhuang Zhengzheng’s (Wang Xun) application to the HR department, he winds up at the fancy head office working alongside the diligent Ma Jie (White-K, The Best is Yet to Come), AKA Magic, and the feisty, vaguely pissed off Pan Yiran (Zhuang Dafei), or Penny – one of those contract temps legally screwed out of full time employment and benefits. Jianlin’s country bumpkin ways make him the unlikely toast of the office, and the promotions come fast and furious. Jianlin is the Chinese cinema version of the Magical Negro, a sweet and simple better angel that comes to the rescue of his superiors. All the while, Magic is trying to paper over the paperwork error he discovered on day one, while Zhuang plots revenge for his lost job opportunity, even though it’s one he bribed his way into. On top of all that, higher ranking exec Jeffrey (Li Naiwen) is leading the charge on a massive round of lay-offs, which pains the kindly Chairman (Ouyang Fenqiang) to no end.
Admittedly Jianlin’s guilelessness leads to a fair number of funny moments, thanks largely to White-K’s deadpan responses and Zhuang’s low-key eyerolling, though Da comes dangerously close to making Jianlin an idiot rather than a country boy it the big city on a few occasions. Dong, who’s last film was the borderline edgy meditation on the meaning of love, Gone with the Light, doesn’t get creative with his images and the slightly bloated script hits all its marks exactly as it should; in other words this will stream just fine while you’re making dinner or doing laundry too. You know where it’s going and can time heating the fry pan just right. Still, even though the film never really gets off the leash it does manage some scathing observations on the way to a dramatic turn that bizarrely confirms the corporate/ruling order. The hypocrisy of throwing a pricy gala at a time when Zhonghe is crying poor and laying off thousands is crystal clear. Johnny’s the crash course in how to behave like upper management is legit hilarious, as is the riff on the need for an Anglo name. There’s a Jack Ma joke in here. But Johnny Keep Walking! doesn’t rock the boat enough to leave a lasting impression; it can’t. The light it shines on the rot at the heart of work culture and economic system that a lot of cinemagoers are exasperated with is ultimately erased by the idea that it’s okay, we can relax. The man at the top will fix it. — DEK