Us and Them

Us and Them (Chinese: 后来的我们, lit. “Who We Will Be”)| 2018

Us and them tells us a story that for a while it feels like is maybe yours. Spanning over a decade and told mostly through flashbacks, the film tells the story of two young lovers, their lives intertwined with the events of the Chinese New year. Jianqing and Xiao Xiao, while the story in itself is not anything that we haven’t seen before, it manages to elevate to a level that comes together as an experience that is very heart warming and if I may say so, even slightly heart rendering. (Okay, okay, I did shed a few tears).I felt in this particular movie, more than anybody else, the biggest character was their relationship. A special shout out goes to Jianqing’s father, Tian Zhuangzhuang, because literally every frame that he was in I wanted to jump in and give him a hug. He owned every single scene that he was a part of with the docility and the unquestionable love of a parent. We see him getting old over the years and as every other kid, Jing Sang’s impatience with the father he sees only once a year and your heart goes out to him. I could honestly write an entire essay about him and all the things I felt while looking at him on screen, my mum’s fragility with each year, my own visits to my home that have become less and less frequent. His relationship with Xiao Xiao is one of the most precious things and was honestly for me one of the winning point for the film. here is a character written with love and time and so beautifully rendered that one could watch the film just for him. Jing Sang and Xiao Xiao’s relationship seems normal if I start to write about it but I couldn’t help falling in love with their naive, innocent love and then the sheer nostalgia that comes crashing later. While dealing with something very commonplace, the young love, Us and Them manages to not be gimmicky at any point (except for the last credits which seemed slightly corny to me). The shots in black in white are breathtakingly beautiful and the score of the movie is always somehow on point. I felt myself growing through their relationship, to impart that sense of time in a span of two hours, of knowing each other, falling in love and then reminiscing about it is a feat that I wouldn’t think is that easy to achieve. Zhou Dongyu is a delight to watch and there is one particular scene where she reminded me so much of Julie Delpy from ‘Before Sunset’ that I knew that I was officially in love with the movie.I am a sucker for sad movies and grey skies. But do watch the movie if you want to see a heart-felt romance, beautiful and lovely. It might make you cry but you would know that at least it was genuine.

Part of a series that is just going to be my unfiltered, unhinged, unabashed and unedited thoughts after watching a film.