Pegasus 2
飞驰人生2
China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 120 mins.
Director: Han Han 韩寒.
Rating: 6/10.
More of the same and with knobs on, plus another effortless lead by Shen Teng as a rally driver who wants to come back (yet again).
STORY
Shanghai, 2023. Five years after being disqualified from winning the 26th Rally China Championship, held in Bayanbulak, Xinjiang province, following an investigation of his wrecked car, onetime champion rally driver Zhang Chi (Shen Teng) is running a tiny driving school from a car-repair works, along with his faithful friends, co-driver Sun Yuqiang (Yin Zheng) and mechanic Jixing (Zhang Benyu). Despite injuries to his right hand and left leg, he still dreams of making a comeback; and to do that, he needs more money than he’s making at the moment. He and Sun Yuqiang visit the factory of Xindi Machinery, which makes low-speed mobility vehicles, on the invitation of the owner Xin Di (Jia Bing), a longtime fan of Zhang Chi who wants to improve his company’s image. Xin Di proposes a deal whereby Zhang Chi would put together a racing team to compete in the forthcoming Bayanbulak rally; unfortunately his budget is only RMB4 million, hardly enough to buy a decent racing car. Sun Yuqiang is against the idea but Zhang Chi agrees, promising Sun Yuqiang that he will never drive himself. After a test run at the factory of a replica of Zhang Chi’s original racing car that Xin Di had built, Zhang Chi agrees to take on the runner-up, a young mechanic named Li Xiaohai (Fan Chengcheng), on Xin Di’s suggestion. Zhang Chi assigns his old friend Liu Xiande (Sun Yizhou) as Li Xiaohai’s co-driver, and the Xindi Racing Team is officially born with 100 days to go until the race. Jixing is not so optimistic, as modifications will need to be made to Zhang Chi’s original car to meet new regulations of the past five years. And since 2018 a new player has entered the game – China’s biggest power plant, Lightime, with a team of hybrid cars that aren’t affected by the 4,000-metre altitude in Bayanbulak. Lightime has won the past four championships and also has Ye (Wei Xiang) – a onetime driver and Zhang Chi’s original car supplier – as its manager. Ye has a close personal contact with Ma Zongliang (Zheng Kai), head of the racing committee, and is determined to win this year, especially when he hears it will be the last Bayanbulak rally. Li Xiaohai turns out to be a highly skilled driver, and the whole team is delighted. But then – around 60 days before the race – Xin Di breaks the news to Zhang Chi that his factory is in financial difficulties and he doesn’t have the second half of the budget to pay him. Zhang Chi has guessed that Li Xiaohai is actually Xin Di’s son, so he arranges with Ye to sell him to Lightime for RMB1 million so he will get a chance to shine. But when Li Xiaohai arrives, he’s treated as a mechanic and told by Ye that he won’t be able to drive until the following year. Sixteen days before the rally, Li Xiaohai returns to Zhang Chi’s team, which scrambles together as much money as it can after repaying Ye the RMB1 million. Zhang Chi tells Ye that Li Xiaohai and Liu Xiande will drive their team’s first car and he himself will drive the second (with Sun Yuqiang) but he will quietly back out during the race, pretending his car broke down. However, the race unfolds in a very different way.
REVIEW
Pegasus 2 飞驰人生2 is more of the same and with knobs on. After crashing to earth with the lazily-written youth movie Only Fools Rush In 四海 (2022), Shanghai-born celebrity writer/blogger/rally-driver-turned-film-director Han Han 韩寒, 41, is back on form in the world he knows best – men driving fast cars for thrills – even if this sequel to the 2019 hit doesn’t quite measure up to the original. Most of the same cast are back, led by straightfaced comedian Shen Teng 沈腾 as the rally champ who just won’t give up, as are most of the tech team, led by Han’s regular d.p. Bai Yuxia 白玉侠 outdoing himself on the widescreen visuals. But the film is exactly what it says on the can: another attempt at a comeback by a has-been, but this time without the psychological backgrounding that enriched his character in the original. Despite that, Mainland audiences lapped it up, giving Han the biggest hit of his career so far with a juicy RMB3.40 billion – exactly double the take of Pegasus 飞驰人生 – and a runner-up place in the 2024 CNY box-office stakes, just behind LOLO 热辣滚烫 (RMB3.46 billion).
Set five years later, the screenplay – this time co-written by Han with Zhou Yunhai 周运海 (comedy-horror Goldbuster 妖铃铃, 2017, which also starred Shen; laddish comedy Coffee or Tea? 一点就到家, 2020; odd-couple rom-com I Remember 明天你是否依然爱我, 2020) – first clarifies the open ending of the original before making it clear that Zhang Chi (Shen) will be back. Post main-title he’s shown running a one-man driving school that’s hardly paying the bills but still surrounded by his old pals like mechanic Jixing (Zhang Benyu 张本煜) and co-driver Sun Yuqiang (Yin Zheng 尹正). Despite the shakes from old injuries, he still nurses the dream of a return as a rally driver – though on the surface he denies it, to placate his friends. But when he gets an offer from a longtime fan who runs a small car manufacturing plant (comedian Jia Bing 贾冰, almost unrecognisable beneath glasses and moustache) to put together a rally team under his company’s name, Zhang Chi simply can’t resist.
As Zhang Chi attempts the impossible on a risibly small budget, behind everything bubbles his impatience to once again get behind a wheel himself. In the original film he was partly driven by a desire to prove himself to his young adopted son; here the drive is all personal. Though it’s not entirely necessary to have seen the original film – just as it’s not entirely necessary to be interested in rally driving – it does help, on both counts.
The film basically follows the arc of the first film, with substitutions: a talented young discovery who joins Zhang Chi’s team (relaxedly played by Fan Chengcheng 范丞丞, 23, younger brother of actress Fan Bingbing 范冰冰) substitutes for the arrogant rich kid played by Huang Jingyu 黄景瑜 in Pegasus, while comedian Wei Xiang 魏翔, as a shifty rival manager, takes the spot occupied by Tenger 腾格尔 as a gangster. Occupying the final 34 minutes of the film, the climactic rally in the high-altitude wastes of Xinjiang is not only double the length of the original one but even more flashily shot, edited and VFX’ed, with an ecstatic score by A Kun 阿鲲 (The Wandering Earth 流浪地球, 2019). It’s all entertaining in an undemanding and sometimes overwhelming way; but given all the repetition and technical turbo-charging, a Pegasus 3 looks unlikely, if not plain impossible.
As before, Shen, 44, dominates the film, playing his trademark straightfaced humour a notch down from his Ma Hua FunAge 开心麻花 comedies (like Goodbye Mr. Loser 夏洛特烦恼, 2015, or Hello Mr.Billionaire 西虹市首富, 2018) and, as in Full River Red 满江红 (2023), without the double-takes. But even without his well-known mannerisms he still carves a blithely likeable character, and when matched by experienced comedians like Jia and Wei, who can also dial themselves down when required, the on-screen chemistry is palpable.
CREDITS
Presented by Shanghai PMF Pictures (CN), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), China Film (CN), Zhejiang FunAge Pictures (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian Film (CN), Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN), Shanghai Film Group (CN).
Script: Han Han, Zhou Yunhai. Photography: Bai Yuxia. Editing: Tu Yiran. Music: A Kun. Art direction: Zhao Xuehao. Styling: Tang Ning. Sound: Wang Gang, Liu Xiaosha. Action: Luo Yimin [Norman Law], Du Zihao. Stunt driving: Níall McShea, Ye Yong, Chen De’an, Fan Gaoxiang. Visual effects: Qiao Le, Ye Zi. Second-unit direction: Ma Lin. Second-unit photography: Zhang Hongbin.
Cast: Shen Teng (Zhang Chi), Fan Chengcheng (Li Xiaohai), Yin Zheng (Sun Yuqiang), Zhang Benyu (Jixing), Sun Yizhou (Liu Xiande), Wei Xiang (Ye, team manager), Jia Bing (Xin Di), Zheng Kai (Ma Zongliang), Feng Shaofeng (Zou, team manager), Huang Jingyu (Lin Zhendong), Liu Haoran (Xindi senior technician), Yu Shi (Lone Wolf, driver), Hu Xianxu (no. 1 driver), Yan Hexiang (no. 1 navigator), Zhou Yemang (technical centre official), Gao Huayang (no. 2 driver), Hao Han (no. 5 navigator), Sun Qiang (no. 2 navigator), Fan Gaoxiang (no. 5 driver).
Release: China, 10 Feb 2024.