This year, Pegasus was among the strongest competitors for the Spring Festival holiday in China, ranked alongside The Wandering Earth and Crazy Alien. Written by Han Han, Pegasus is more literate than other films competing at the box office which was his goal when making it. This is evident in the film as it detaches itself from the low-brow humor and dramatized CGI of mainstream cinema in favor of a more uplifting racing story. Regardless, the rotary enthusiasts will be more pleased than the general audience and the storytelling was lacking in comparison to the racing scenes.
The main character of what seems to be an inspiring story is Zhang Chi, played by Shen Teng in Goodbye Mr. Loser. He is the leading character of Pegasus and his life is far from perfect. Zhang is a former rally racing champion who spent the last five years behind bars due to illegal racing. To piece his life back together, he hopes to do well in one last rally competition but needs to handle a lot of loose ends within the first hour of the film. This includes getting a car frame, a new driving license, sponsors, and even his old driving license back. Once that is out of the way, we see Zhang really getting into it, or going “in the zone” during the last thirty minutes of the film and setting the stage for Pegasus.
If you try to analyze Pegasus as a form of storytelling, it seems creative on the surface but blurry in application. Most “comeback” tales feature the protagonist grappling with their shortcomings before experiencing a “rebirth.” In ‘Pegasus,’ this paradigm does not exist. The storyline is developed with Zhang already resurrected. Most of his soul searching is done through flashbacks, but never deeply felt. While Zhang must undergo superficial trials like sitting for a driving test, nothing that forces him to grow as a character is put in place.
As a matter of fact, nearly every challenge that Zhang Chi encounters gets wrapped up rather nicely due to the misuse of the ‘deus ex machina’ technique. For one example, there is a point in the story when Zhang Chi’s rally car gets wrecked just before the big race. Fortunately, his biggest opponent Lin Zhendong (Huang Jingyu from Operation Red Sea) steps in and offers to repair the car without any argument or strings attached.
In addition, Pegasus fails to go deeper into Zhang Chi’s reasoning other than the basic wish to restore himself as a leading rally driver. For instance, Zhang does not seem to have much competitive zeal for his rival Lin Zhendong. Any hostility that he may have felt towards Lin was replaced by embarrassment and deference during his five-year ban. To Zhang Chi’s advantage, Lin is made out to be a villain (he is a rich fuerdai while Zhang remains poor), but his benevolence towards Zhang makes it even less justifiable to hate him.
Moreover, Zhang Chi also has a young adopted son, which could’ve motivated him to accomplish so much more. But again, Pegasus misses this angle. Some films depict parents who need redemption trying to put their lives together solely for the sake of the child’s approval, but the opposite is true for Zhang in Pegasus. The child has unconditional approval for his father, and instead, they share a loving, petrifyingly boring relationship.
Pegasus undergoes a value transformation if you place narrative construction aside. Pegasus has become a cinematic twist of the British comedic racing motoring program, Top Gear. This is a movie based on a humorous yet matine moto evergreen.
The pre-rally activities Zhang Chi engages in simulate the “challenges” that are showcased in Top Gear. A case in point, is to gather funds from a gangster Zhang and his co-driver put on pole dance and karaoke. This reminds me of the Top Gear presenters who once way rode in a car across Syria covered in burqas.
In the last half hour of Pegasus, cinematography is also an area where the movie excels and makes parallels with Top Gear. For example, in Pegasus, just like how Top Gear does challenges in the Italian Alps, Han Han decided to place the last race of the movie in the Bayanbulak Grassland National Nature Reserve; so beautiful that the state broadcaster of China made an article stating, “paradise.” Filming in the mountain switchbacks, around beautiful lakes, and on the plains of Bayanbulak was no easy task, and took a huge amount of resources and technology to pull off; Pegasus deserves credit for the impressive scenery in the movie.
First off, every car from the rally races starts at different times, so they don’t have to pass each other. This made me slightly worried nonetheless, but I was still able to appreciate the stunning scenery. The beautiful scenery is the only thing that made Zhang’s final race passable. However, Pegasus took lessons from other TV programs such as Top Gear, and made that race one of the most stunning races in cinematic history. The film uses tons of slow-mo, split screens, and sports-style voiceovers that make the movie so entertaining, that I am sure every car enthusiast will enjoy it.
In a way, Han Han’s life priorities are reflected through Pegasus’s strengths and weaknesses. After enjoying success as a literary figure of China’s post-80s youth, he turned his back on writing, to become a professional rally car driver, arguing that he had, ‘said all the things he had needed to say’ through writing.
As a result, it appears that while making Pegasus, Han Han focused on all the aspects related to cars as opposed to those relating to the literature. According to the Chinese media, Han Han actually drove every car that was used in Pegasus and trained Shen Teng, the main actor, to drive. Han Han was also an additional car contributor, and he integrates many hints about his racing idols (for example eg. Xu Lang) and his own personal encounters (like hitting a tree) into the movie.
With regards to the previous two movies from Han Han, the Continent and Duckweed (another well-received Chinese film from 2017), Pegasus looks like a riding passion project that motors were just waiting to be unleashed in. The Continent incorporates a driving theme while presenting a road trip, Duckweed introduces a rally car driver to the audience while in Pegasus, an appropriate narrative control is thrown out the window as the focus shifts solely onto motorsport.
So, while the film Pegasus does lack true storytelling skills as one would expect, it does have some stock genre value. The demographics of the Top Gears and the Grand Tour audiences would feel the film is slightly entertaining, however, those who observe China’s entertainment industries should also pay attention. Having carved out a niche in the formerly Western genre of motors, showcasing abundant filmmaking prowess, Pegasus is a step toward the more compelling Chinese features that are yet to come.
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