'Never Say Die' triumphs at box office

A scene from the film Never Say Die [Photo/Mtime]

The film follows Ai Disheng, a mixed-martial arts fighter accused of taking a nosedive for a hefty cash pay-off during a heated championship match.

His career-ending scandal, along with a damning video that catches him on camera opening a duffle bag chock-full of payola, was exposed by Ma Xiao, his reporter nemesis, a famous, arrogant, ace journalist whose history of hard-hitting exposes has left her believing she can never get it wrong. Naturally, they loathe each other.

Things take a bizarre spin when he and she collide by a swimming pool, accidentally lock lips, and fall into the water just as lightning strikes.

Naturally - as fantasies go - their consciousness mystically switches bodies, leaving his in her body and hers in his. What follows is a parade of hilarious gender-crossed situations and misunderstandings that tug at your heart-strings while they tickle your funny bone.

But the film goes beyond mere slapstick and pratfalls. There are few stories in life as satisfying as watching someone who's been wrongfully vilified regain their good reputation while the bad-guy who framed him gets his comeuppance.

And if you can roll in a "feel good" love story and an underdog sports triumph too, chances are you'll hit a gland slam and take home the winning trophy.

Never Say Die did that in spades.

The directors reunited Chinese comedic stars, Ai Lun and Ma Li, the leads from Mahua's previous blockbuster smash, Goodbye Mr. Loser (226 million US dollars in 2016), whose experience in comedic theater made them perfectly-suited for these roles.

"The film's success owns much to the actors' skill. They were professional and impressive and their body language really fit the story's comedy," filmgoer Yu Hong told Xinhua.

Both leads were able to walk a delicate line between projecting "too little" and "too much." Many comedies fail when the film or the actors try too hard and lose that fresh, spontaneous sense of fun or whimsy.

But Allen Ai manages the difficult task of playing both a manly, though somewhat feckless, professional fighter and a slightly-hysterical girly-man without being too swishy or blatantly insulting.

Li Ma is equally adept at playing both a powerful, sophisticated female executive and a crotch-scratching, breast-ogling, beer-swilling guy.

Allen and Li's on-screen chemistry builds nicely to an unsurprising, but still-gratifying romantic conclusion.

With this scrappy film still duking it out in theaters with the majors, it's already proved it's got the stuff of champions.