After receiving a devastating medical diagnosis, dazed office worker Ye (Yuanyuan Gao) sits in a bus seat designated for senior citizens. The outrage of her fellow passengers and a flippant remark are captured on a cell phone camera, courtesy of a TV-news intern (Luodan Wang) looking for a break. The footage airs on the show, angry netizens identify the rude “Sunglasses Girl” as Ye, and all public-shaming hell breaks loose.
No stranger to controversy, Fifth Generation Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige (Farewell, My Concubine) has always taken his country to task over bureaucratic and social issues; here, the director goes after both old-media exploitation and new-media omnipresence, and the result is less than cutting. Adding elements of corporate backstabbing, romantic shenanigans, and a WTF wacky wuxia interlude involving a bodyguard (Mark Chao) and paparazzi does not make a weak satire seem any sharper.
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