Someday or One Day (Film) - 2022 Review
MAJOR SPOILERS so please skip ahead if you haven’t watched.
The film started off great. Perfect closure and continuation of the drama. The absolute cutest meet-cute montage. Them catching each other’s eyes at the bubble tea shop as Wu Bai’s Last Dance plays, connected and drawn by vague memories from an alternate timeline, and then him coming to the store everyday to order bubble tea just to see her.
I expected the film to go one of two ways as it went on:
1) The film would address their lost “memories” from the time loop.
2) LZW’s plane accident would be inevitable, even in this timeline. When HYX said that she had to go to Shanghai for work, I thought that history was doomed to repeat itself and that LZW would also try to follow and visit her there, but he wouldn’t make it.
Turns out, the film went in a completely new direction, which I don’t entirely understand, but maybe I just need to read more analyses in order to get it.
In 2014, there was an accident. LZW died while trying to save HYX. She goes on living without him. It’s 2017, she receives a cassette. She travels back in time into CYR’s 2014 body. She tries to warn 2014 LZW, but he doesn’t believe her. The 2014 HYX is really CYR at this point. She gets a text (from 2017 LZW in WQS’s body) who tells her to come to the construction site. She goes, wanting to end all this.
2017 HYX in CYR’s body runs to the site to try to stop the accident. When she gets there, she sees 2017 LZW (in WQS’s body) and 2014 LZW. She’s rightfully confused.
2017 CYR (in 2014 HYX’s body) comes from behind and attempts to stab 2017 HYX (in 2014 CYR’s body). 2017 LZW pushes her out of the way and gets stabbed. 2017 CYR runs to the edge in an attempt to fling herself off. She tries to drag 2017 HYX with her. 2017 LZW pulls 2017 HYX back, while 2014 LZW tries to save 2017 CYR (whom he believes is HYX). He dies saving her.
So 2014 HYX’s body is saved. Her 2014 consciousness returns while 2017 CYR’s 2017 consciousness dies (and hence she dies while in her miscarriage-induced coma in 2017 as well, much to her husband’s dismay).
2017 HYX’s consciousness returns to 2017, the present day, and she awakes. She goes find Mo Jun Jie, who reveals a 2017 WQS, who explains what happened.
It turns out that in another timeline, 2014 HYX was the one who died, and 2014 LZW tried to travel back in time to save her, but in order to do so, he had to scour Taiwan to find the right Wu Bai cassette, which took him 3 years to find. Hence he became the 2017 LZW, who traveled back in time into 2014 WQS’s body.
So there are two timelines where 2017 HYX and 2017 LZW exist separately. He tries to save her (because in his timeline, both HYX and CYR fall off the scaffold). But in doing so (i.e., pulling 2017 HYX in 2014 CYR’s body back and letting 2017 CYR in 2014 HYX’s body fall), it causes his 2014 self to fling himself off the scaffold to save 2014 HYX’s body, thereby killing himself. And in killing himself, HYX will in turn try to save him, and so she will try to be the one who falls off with CYR instead, which will cause him to want to save her, hence the loop.
We see a brief moment in the loop where 2017 LZW (in 2014 WQS’s body) and 2017 HYX (in 2014 CYR’s body) share a moment on the scaffold after 2014 LZY and 2017 CYR have just died. They recognized that they’re both trying to save each other, but it ends up killing themselves in each other’s timelines. They embrace, and then the true consciousness belonging to the bodies return.
WQS and CYR burn the cassette, and somehow, this makes things better and reverses everything. 2017 LZW and 2017 HYX get their happy ending.
I’m just confused as to why CYR has gotten entangled in all of this. She’s married to guy she loves and whom loves her. She suffers a miscarriage and travels back in time into 2014 HYX’s body. We understand that like her character in the drama, she’s always been suicidal and depressed. I just don’t understand her logic behind thinking that by getting rid of her 2014 self that things will be better for everyone involved. Why was this entire scenario necessary? I honestly do not understand the reasoning behind including this whole accident into the plot. CYR’s motivation seems contrived. CYR has her own life going, so it’s not out of jealousy of HYX, like in the drama, which makes me all the more confused as to how CYR relates to the other characters?
And then CYR’s alternate ending is that she never went to the concert with Yang Hao, and ends up reuniting with Mo Jun Jie.
In the drama, the driving goal was to prevent CYR’s death. That tied the drama together. But in the film, I don’t understand what starts this time loop. Apparently, HYX’s death is what starts it, because it triggers LZW to try to save her, which causes his own death, which triggers her to try to save him, but that’s why kills her, which triggers LZW to save her, and so forth and so on, ad infinitum.
But what triggers HYX’s death in the first place? Apparently CYR? But why? Is there something I’m not understanding? Please ELI5.
Emotionally, this film delivers, just like the drama did. The opening had me smiling like an idiot, and so did the end. The part where it reveals that LZW was dead all along and HYX has just been pretending like he never died during the past 3 years was gut wrenching. The way she kept replying the only video clip that she has of him wishing her goodnight. So in the sense, this film is good fan service.
Plot-wise, it was unique and ambitious by wanting to do something entirely different from the drama. I just didn’t think that the premise was strong enough. Having the entire time loop being contingent on the accident on the construction site was a little shaky (pun intended).
I also loved the moment when 2014 LZW starts to wonder whether the 2014 CYR who’s been harassing him is actually 2017 HYX like she says, after he sees the doodle on the bubble tea cup. It reminded me of how he knew HYX was no longer in CYR’s body when he sees the change in handwriting.
It also goes without saying that the acting is top-notch. Greg Hsu and Alice Ke play different characters, as well as the same characters at different ages, so effortlessly and believably. There was also a lot of attention to detail to both the costuming the makeup in order to emphasize the different character personality and ages. Obviously the hairstyling makes a huge difference, but CYR has less skin smoothing and also some age spots, as opposed to the younger HYX who’s more airbrushed. I’m wondering if WQS was a little airbrushed too. His whole demeanor is entirely differently from LZW, and a part of me thinks that it cannot be chalked up to just changes in hairstyling alone. WQS looks so, so much younger, and also seems to have a slight hunch to emphasize the weight of being bullied over all of these years. Excellent character interpretation by both the cast and crew.
But sometimes the CGI left a lot to be desired. Like the opening sequence of HYX falling into “water”. I mean, they couldn’t have filmed Alice Ke submerged in a pool?
It’s been a year since I watched the drama at the beginning of 2022, nearly 3 years after when the drama was first released. I remember there being rumours that the film would be released for CNY 2022, but it instead got released for Xmas 2022, and now I’m watching it after CNY 2023 lol. It’s been a journey, but I’m glad that there was a film after all to extend these characters’ stories. I mean, I was content enough with the bonus scene where a 17 year-old HYX brings a birthday cake to a 28 year-old LZW, but this film has been great fan service.
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