This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions.
The Chinese movie market grew rapidly in the late 2000s and early 2010s, becoming the world’s second largest in 2012.
21 & Over, which premiered in 2013 – in the middle of this period and at the end of the gross-out comedy craze – is a Sino-American co-production that seemingly could not decide whether it wanted to please everybody or offend them.
Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the screenwriters of 2009’s highly successful The Hangover, it is a bad-taste frat comedy that has a special Chinese cut, with extra scenes shot in and around Linyi in Shandong province.
Despite the fact that Jeff has an interview for medical school the next morning – and a terrifying dad (Lost’s François Chau) – they go out and get him blind drunk, then cannot find their way home.
A cross-campus odyssey ensues with plenty of breasts, beer pong and bodily fluids. American Pie covered much the same ground 14 years earlier but is almost quaint in comparison.