‘YOLO’ Review: A Megahit Chinese Boxing Movie That Needs More Punch
variety.comGuy Lodge Film Critic Macho sports-movie tropes meet with bright chick-flick framing to curious effect in “YOLO,” either an ostensible boxing drama that doesn’t pick up the gloves until the third act, or a misfit romcom that takes a late and unusual turn toward transformational self-help territory.
Chinese audiences have been delighted by either formulation, as Jia Ling‘s second feature as director-star — following 2021’s popular time-travel comedy “Hi, Mom” — has racked up the year’s second-highest global gross so far, mostly on the strength of its domestic receipts.
That’s been enough to secure it an international release through Sony, but “YOLO” is likelier to bemuse outside viewers unfamiliar with Jia’s persona as a celebrity comedian — and her extreme weight-loss journey while making the film, a narrative that powered its publicity on home turf. “YOLO” is itself a work of cultural translation, adapted as it is from Japanese director Masaharu Take’s well-regarded 2014 drama “100 Yen Love,” which starred Sakura Ando as a downtrodden Tokyo woman reclaiming her life through pugilism.
Taking its tonal and aesthetic cues from American independent cinema, Take’s film was stoic, gritty and only occasionally spiked with mordant humor.
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