Yesterday Once More

倒数说爱你

China, 2023, colour, 1.86:1, 99 mins.

Director: Lin Xiaoqian 林孝谦 [Gavin Lin].

Rating: 7/10.

Youth romance with supernatural elements is an entertaining, if generic, ride lifted by lead actress Zhou Ye.

STORY

Qingdao city, Shandong province, northern China, 31 Dec 2002. On his birthday, young, lonely Gu Yuxuan (Fu Bohan) meets a girl neighbour, Han Shuyan (Luo Yichun), and they celebrate together. But when he goes to visit her he finds she’s moved away. Many years later, in 2018, they meet by chance at the splashy wedding of some friends, Gu Yuxuan’s co-worker Jiang Taiqi (Sun Tianyu) and live streamer Yu Li (Zhao Xiaotang), where they are best man and bridesmaid. Gu Yuxuan (Chen Feiyu) is now a toy designer and Han Shuyan (Zhou Ye) a professional baker. They become friends, and then lovers, and life is great. However, when Gu Yuxuan’s abusive father (Yang Zihua) dies, with debts to moneylenders, he has to work extra hard to pay them off. He keeps it secret from Han Shuyan but becomes moody from overwork and ends up spending less time with her. Their relationship suffers. On the day of his birthday, 31 Dec 2022, they start by having a big argument. Also their friends Jiang Taiqi and Yu Li are about to divorce after a cooling-off period over a supposed infidelity by Jiang Taiqi, even though Yu Li confesses to Han Shuyan that she knows he wasn’t unfaithful. Han Shuyan, who plans to open a bakery, does a livestream with Yu Li to publicise it. Meanwhile, Gu Yuxuan visits a mysterious old picture-book author (Yue Yueli) to discuss making toys of the characters, and later is forced by his boss (Cheng Fangxu) to attend a New Year party. As a result, he can’t go out with Han Shuyan on his birthday. She learns about the debts he has been paying off. But then, at the party, they have an argument, she stalks off, and in the street is accidentally killed by some falling scaffolding. Gu Yuxuan goes home, distraught. But next morning he wakes up to find she’s alive. Her death was just a dream! It’s 31 Dec 2022, so he repeats everything he did in the dream and tries to avoid arguing with Han Shuyan. Other things, however, stay the same, including his visit to the mysterious old picture-book author, who tells him that everything is predestined, such as Han Shuyan’s death. Gu Yuxuan, therefore, changes his plans, takes the day off from work, and goes with Han Shuyan to an old house she wants to rent for her bakery business. But Gu Yuxuan finds he can’t change fate, however many times he gets to relive the day of his birthday.

REVIEW

After three features based on or inspired by South Korean or Japanese originals, Taiwan film-maker Lin Xiaoqian 林孝谦 [Gavin Lin], 43, and regular writer Lv Anxian 吕安弦 come up with an original idea in Yesterday Once More 倒数说爱你, a youth romance with supernatural elements. Lin’s eighth feature as director, and his second that was both entirely funded by and shot in the Mainland (this time around Qingdao), it still feels very Taiwanese and as if it’s based on a manga, with an overall cute feel and the fanciful idea of the hero trying to change fate as he keeps reliving a single day. Though it could easily lose 10 minutes, mostly in the final half-hour, it’s still an entertaining ride, thanks to Lin’s typically smooth direction and an emotionally engaging performance by lead actress Zhou Ye 周也 (leader of the school bullies in Better Days 少年的你, 2019). Despite being a notch up on Lin’s last feature, high-school rom-com One Week Friends 一周的朋友 (2022), it took only a paltry RMB26 million this spring, less than a quarter of Friends’ (only modest) amount.

The script by Lv and fellow Taiwanese Chen Peiwen 陈佩妏 (in her first feature after a handful of TVDs) is a fairly conventional qīngméizhúmă 青梅竹马 (childhood sweethearts) story spiced up with the hero trying to avert the heroine’s death by repeatedly reliving the fatal day. The first twist comes almost 40 minutes in, and it’s after that that the plot really gets into gear. But, as in One Week Friends, there’s a major twist at the end too. The writers have considerable fun as the hero relives the fatal day and tries to change fate, and the film as a whole benefits from the time taken at the start to establish the main characters, from their fortuitous meeting when young kids to their chance re-meeting as young adults and the rekindling of their attraction.

Not for the first time in such rom-commy, light romantic fare, the leads’ best friends are more characterful than the leads themselves, with Zhao Xiaotang 赵小堂 (26, in her first sizeable big-screen role) and Sun Tianyu 孙天宇 (25, ditto) stealing some of the early going as a diva-esque live streamer and the hero’s breezy co-worker. But sensibly the writers keep them reined back as the main story develops and, though Chen Feiyu 陈飞宇 (the US-born son of director Chen Kaige 陈凯歌 and actress Chen Hong 陈红) is pretty bland as the hero, Zhou manages to anchor the film as she makes a routine role something much more. Chen Feiyu, 23, was much better than this in the high-school movie My Best Summer 最好的我们 (2019) but here he’s outclassed by Zhou, 25, who even manages to make the final scene moving in a corny way.

As usual, Lin puts together a polished product, with warm but not exaggerated colours by Mainland d.p. Liu Fan 刘帆 (Lost and Found 以年为单位的恋爱, 2021) and an okay, only mildly soupy score by Taiwan regulars Luo Enni 罗恩妮 and Chen Jianqi 陈建骐. Among the heavily Taiwan-skewed key crew are also art director Fang Shengxiang 方圣翔 and stylist Wei Xiangrong 魏湘容, also both from One Week Friends, with editing again by Hong Kong veteran Li Dongquan 李栋全 [Wenders Li].

The film has no connection with Yesterday Once More 谁的青春不迷茫 (2016), directed by Yao Tingting 姚婷婷, or Yesterday Once More 龙凤斗 (2004), directed by Du Qifeng 杜琪峰 [Johnnie To] and starring Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau] and Zheng Xiuwen 郑秀文 [Sammi Cheng].

CREDITS

Presented by Wanda Pictures (Qingdao) (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN). Produced by Wanda Pictures (Qingdao) (CN).

Script: Lv Anxian, Chen Peiwen. Photography: Liu Fan. Editing: Yan Bowen, Li Dongquan [Wenders Li]. Music: Luo Enni, Chen Jianqi. Art direction: Fang Shengxiang. Styling: Wei Xiangrong. Sound: Wang Chong, Zhang Jian. Action: Xue Feiwei. Visual effects: Lai Weijia (Beijing A Pictures).

Cast: Chen Feiyu (Gu Yuxuan), Zhou Ye (Han Shuyan), Zhao Xiaotang (Yu Li/Olivia), Sun Tianyu (Jiang Taiqi/Teddy), Juanzi [Zhao Lijuan] (Han Shuyan’s mother), Bai Cha (himself), Cheng Fangxu (Wang, Gu Yuxuan’s boss), Yang Zihua (Gu Yuxuan’s father), Yue Yueli (picture-book old man), Wu Xuxu (picture-book old woman), Fu Bohan (young Gu Yuxuan), Luo Yichun (young Han Shuyan), Jiang Yiduo (Yu Li’s assistant), Yang Xiao (Xixi, Gu Yuxuan’s colleague), Pei Chenwei, Rao Puwei (police officers), Yang Tingting (Queen of Hearts), Sui Jia (Gu Yuxuan’s mother), Liu Penggang (Han Shuyan’s father), Wang Bin (debt collector).

Release: China, 28 Apr 2023.