Us And Them (2018): Off-the-scale chemistry carries this tale of falling in and out of love
Jing Boran and Zhou Dongyu shine in this touching story of former lovers which explores the ambiguities of the human heart.
In the late 2000s, Jianqing and Xiaoxiao, played by Jing Boran and Zhou Dongyu, meet on a train traveling from Beijing to their rural hometown for the New Year. There is an instant attraction; it is inevitable they are destined to fall in love. Then, suddenly, the film flashes forward to the present day. Jianqing and Xiaoxiao are again traveling home from Beijing, except this time it is different. They are almost strangers. They sit apart, alone, until a cancellation announcement forces them to room together for the night.
What has changed between the past and the present? Us And Them, the directorial debut of Taiwanese singer-songwriter and actress Rene Liu, cuts back and forth between these two timelines to answer this question: Their youthful romance is juxtaposed with their attempts to reconcile the former relationship as adults. But the answer isn’t simple in Us And Them. Here, people change in mysterious ways through a jumble of personal, professional, romantic and economic factors.
Rene Liu refuses to think in absolute terms about the reasons why people fall in and out of love. The human heart is an ambiguous thing in her movie, as it is in life, and this extends to how she approaches the characters themselves. Jianqing and Xiaoxiao are complex and multifaceted, and Liu is unafraid of showing their worst qualities alongside their best. They are romantic, ambitious, caring and funny. However, Jianqing is also prone to bursts of rage when his ego is hurt, and Xiaoxiao can be naive as she struggles to align her romantic idealism with reality.
There is no third party which comes between our heroes, no misunderstanding which creates conflict. Us And Them is almost entirely driven by the ebbs and flows of their relationship. The lack of dramatic tension places a heavy burden on actors Jing Boran and Zhou Dongyu to carry the film. Yet, they make it look effortless. Chemistry is the most important part of any romantic drama—even the most compelling stories fall apart without a central couple you really invest in—and the tricky thing is that it is not something easily manufactured. But Jing Boran and Zhou Dongyu have it by the bucket load; there is an innate charm to their collective screen presence.
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Directed by Rene Liu. Written by Zhang Biyai. Produced by Zhang Yibai. Starring Jing Boran, Zhou Dongyu and Tian Zhuangzhuang. Distributed by Tianjin Maoyan Culture Media and Netflix. 119 minutes. China.