China\'s first parkour movie is more about the teenage hero\'s combative relationship with his mum than about the sport itself. Beyond China, film weeks.
From its sparky main titles, showing the teenage hero leaping over hutong walls, this promises to be a rappy parkour youth movie, Beijing style. But though there are plenty of short sequences showing him and his pals bouncing around the city and its back alleys, plus some rap by Mongolian pop singer Gongge\'er (China\'s "Fat Michael Jackson"), the script is more concerned with him neglecting the school studies on which his hard-working mother places so much importance for his future. The film doesn\'t become a doctrinaire lecture on education vs. fun - in fact, the kids\' activities are treated sympathetically - but, without any subplot of them training to take part in some competition or other, there\'s a lack of dramatic tension throughout the film and any clear forward pulse.
City Monkey is, however, still a likable movie, largely thanks to its performances and the fact it never takes itself too seriously. Big-screen newcomer Sheng Chao makes an easygoing hero, with no tiresome teenage blues, and veteran actress Li Bin almost steals the show as the sarcastic grandmother who secretly supports his obsession. (Her contribution to the closing titles is especially memorable.) The well-known Lu Liping seems a bit miscast as the uneducated, devoted mother with a strong stubborn streak, and seems more natural in her scenes with older cast members like Li and, as her son\'s father, Guo Tao. Director Patrick Kong delivers a relaxedly paced film, paragraphed with attractive tableaux of Beijing street/trafficscapes.
By Derek ELLEY