Be Yourself

错过了，遗憾吗¿

China, 2026, colour, 2.0:1, 90 mins.

Director: Huang Shi 黄石.

Rating: 5/10.

Despite a good performance by lead actress Zhuang Dafei, this lightly humorous portrait of life after being dumped has an untidy script and no clear sense of direction.

STORY

Chinese New Year, late Jan 2025. Wu Xiaobei (Zhuang Dafei), 23, is woken during the night at her parents’ home in eastern China and dumped over the phone by her first love, Li Tianhao (Zhou Cheng’ao), who was due to arrive by train the next day to celebrate CNY together. He gives no reason for wanting to split up with her. Meanwhile, in the courtyard below, she sees a lonely hooded man who sets off a firework before going back to his flat. (Wu Xiaobei had been raised by a loving father [Sun Qiang] and mother [Xia Lixin] who were also deeply in love. When she had first met Li Tianhao, he had graduated from university four years earlier. It had been love at first sight, and they had celebrated her 20th birthday together. She had studied Tourism Management at university but, after graduating, had been unable to use her degree and done various minor jobs instead. Over time, Li Tianhao had gradually stopped answering her calls because of work pressures.) Without telling her parents about the break-up, Wu Xiaobei goes back to Beijing. She confides many small things she didn’t notice at the time with her flatmate Mia (Zhao Jiali): how Li Tianhao became more and more distracted, and was attracted by other women. Mia advises her not to over-think things. Li Tianhao finally calls Wu Xiaobei and says he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a month ago and now just needs some space. When she goes to his flat to pick up her things, it becomes clear that their relationship is over, especially when he even blames her for his disorder. Wu Xiaobei finally crashes, loses her job as a shop assistant and starts spending recklessly. Throughout, Mia tries to support her emotionally. Wu Xiaobei’s father visits her unexpectedly and arranges a blind date for her with the nephew (Tian Taile) of an old army friend; it doesn’t go well. Wu Xiaobei then learns that Li Tianhao doesn’t have bipolar disorder and just used it as an excuse to get rid of her. Furious, she goes on a glad-to-be-single binge with Mia. On another night she drops by the bar of Cui (Bai Ke), whom she had previously met by chance after being dumped by Li Tianhao. Li Tianhao happens to be in the same bar with a beautiful model, Kiki (Huang Ziqi), though he doesn’t see Wu Xiaobei. After Li Tianhao and Kiki leave, Wu Xiaobei and the older Cui have a long, drunken heart-to-heart that also becomes flirtatious – though at the last moment Wu Xiaobei runs off. She next befriends Li Hao (Ao Ziyi), a young, 19-year-old server in a coffee shop; she enjoys his company but when he gets serious she is forced to let him down. Meanwhile, Mia discovers that her latest boyfriend, Liu Lindun (Wu Hankun), already has a girlfriend (Sun Jialing); after being humiliated by both of them, Mia decides to go back to her native Hangzhou for some quiet time. For the same reason, Wu Xiaobei goes home to her parents. While there, she spots a young man who looks vaguely familiar. He is Wang Zheyuan (Wang Anyu), a young potter who actually lives in the same block as her parents. He’s a bit weird but Wu Xiaobei quickly develops a major crush on him.

REVIEW

Be Yourself 错过了，遗憾吗¿ is a lightly humorous portrait of life after being dumped by your first love that has a promising first hour but doesn’t know where to go in its third act, with one of the most illogical endings in some time. The second feature (but first to be commercially released) by writer-director Huang Shi 黄石, now in her early 40s, Be Yourself was originally titled 失恋后也不必做的12件事 (literally, “12 Things Not to Do After Being Dumped”), which suggests a more structured rom-com. Its final Chinese title (“Missed Out, Any Regrets¿”) is as wonky as the finished film and as far as possible from the bland English title (which even gives the ending away). It’s all a great shame, as the movie has many plus points beyond its formless script – not least a striking lead performance by Shenyang-born actress-singer Zhuang Dafei 庄达菲, 25, who was so good as the cheesed-off contract worker in big-business satire Johnny Keep Walking! 年会不能停！ (2023) and then as the lead in light comedy Be My Friend 我才不要和你做朋友呢 (2024). Despite scathing online reviews, Be Yourself somehow managed to scrape a barely face-saving RMB78 million.

Born in Yangzhou city, Jiangsu province, eastern China, Huang atended Beijing Film Academy straight from high school in 2003 and graduated from the literature department with a master’s degree in 2010. Well-known scriptwriter Mei Feng 梅峰, in his first film as a director, gave her a co-writing credit on Mr. No Problem 不成问题的问题 (2016), a period comedy of manners adapted from a short story by Lao She 老舍, and after that she wrote and directed We’re All Stories in the End 恋爱小说 (literally, “Love Novel”), a wintry, Dostoyevsky-inspired romance starring actress Zhu Yanmanzi 朱颜曼滋 and actor Wang Yu 王煜, shot in 2021 but so far unreleased (see poster, top left). She has also written and directed a 3½-minute online short for Vogue China, Impermanence Is Eternity 他的猜想 (2021, see poster, left), featuring Taiwan actress Shu Qi 舒淇 wandering around in o.t.t. costumes and musing philosophically on the soundtrack. Huang has also written the script 侠女事务所 (literally, “Heroine Office”), so far unfilmed.

Though some of the screenplay’s weaknesses are apparent during the first hour, it is sustained by a quiet sense of humour (even in emotional moments) and Zhuang’s performance as the naive Wu Xiaobei – who gradually (very gradually) moves on from incomprehension at being ditched by her first love. A good supporting cast also adds flavour, especially well-known comic actor Bai Ke 白客 in a typically wry performance as an older man who offers his cynical wisdom and a shoulder to cry on (plus more, if she wants). Also sustaining the narrative, as it bounces around from man to man, tantrum to tantrum, are Sun Qiang 孙强 as Wu Xiaobei’s sunny father, Zhao Jiali 赵佳丽 as her supportive flatmate Mia, Wu Hankun 吴汉坤 as Mia’s latest Romeo, and Sun Jialing 孙嘉灵 in a brief but memorable appearance as his bitch-on-wheels girlfriend.

The problem, however, is that Huang’s screenplay has little structure or sense of progression: characters come and go, Wu Xiaobei’s shows no development, and quirky touches (her ex’s mood swings, her own tantrums, the “girl on the bridge” later on) are just momentary distractions. The script also fails to make Wu Xiaobei really sympathetic. Her early naivety is understandable but over-played – with Mia telling her not to “over-think” things after being dumped – and she shows a tendency afterwards to go for relationships that are basically doomed from the start. Maybe that is the point of the film; but Huang’s script can’t come up with a suitable resolution. In the final act Wu Xiaobei’s latest crush turns out to be rather different – which makes the film’s ending even less understandable and the main character seem simply self-obsessed (“continue to love yourself unconditionally” 继续肯定地爱自己). Zhuang does her best to make Wu Xiaobei an interesting character, worthy of an audience’s attention, but she’s constantly battling a negative screenplay.

Technical credits are very smooth, led by the good-looking, uncharacteristically un-nuanced photography of d.p. Ke Yuming 柯昱名 (Bad Guys Always Die 坏蛋必须死, 2015; Bipolar 只是一次偶然的旅行, 2021) that doesn’t get in the way of the actors. As well as in Beijing, the film was also shot around Longquan city, Zhejiang province, eastern China.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Such a Good Film (CN), Tencent Penguin Pictures (Shanghai) (CN), China Film Creative (Beijing) (CN).

Script: Huang Shi, Ju Shutong, Wang Yaxin. Script supervision: Pan Yu. Photography: Ke Yuming. Editing: Zhou Xinxia, Jin Shuang. Music: He Li. Art direction: Liu Dongyang. Costumes: Ma Guijuan. Styling: Dong Xiangshuai. Sound: Jiao Chuanglei, Wu Jiang. Visual effects: Liu Baojun.

Cast: Zhuang Dafei (Wu Xiaobei), Wang Anyu (Wang Zheyuan), Bai Ke (Cui), Ao Ziyi (Li Hao), Zhao Jiali (Mia), Zhou Cheng’ao (Li Tianhao), Chen Haoyu (fortune-teller), Huang Ziqi (Kiki, Li Tianhao’s model girlfriend), Wu Hankun (Liu Lindun, Mia’s new boyfriend), Sun Jialing (Lili, Liu Lindun’s girlfriend), Xia Lixin (Wu Xiaobei’s mother), Sun Qiang (Wu Xiaobei’s father), Taile [Tian Taile] (Bobby), Si Waige [Liu Zhi] (Liu Jia, bridegroom), Sun Huiqian (young Wu Xiaobei), Zhang Hanfang (Xinxin, Li Tianhao’s sexy client), Jiang Yiting (first-love girl), Li Han, Piao Songri (doctors), Wang Hongquan (breakfast server), Yu Xintian (bike-shop manager), Cui Ke (stylist), Cao Danni (Qianqian), Sun Kai (Da Fu), Zhan Sihan (Rui), Gao Xing (Diandian), Zhao Xinchen (Alice), Liu Zhengcai, Liu Bing (aggressive men outside bar), Wu Xuxu (flower-seller lady), Gu Mingyi (Qiongqiong, Li Hao’s wannabe girlfriend), Xu Xinyi (Li Mengqi, girl by the river), Wang Yuyue (Wang, neighbourhood committee woman), Hu Yanyan (reporter), Dai Yanli (cousin), Zhu Aoyu, Lei Haoxiang, Hu Zhengjun, Chen Kang, Du Yusen, Li Jiahao, Zhang Xinyao (Wang Lu’s ex-boyfriends at her wedding), Liu Yichun (Wang Lu, bride).

Release: China, 20 May 2026.