Countdown Love You： A two-way fantasy romance, and Chen Feiyu Week also fights against fate.
Countdown Love You doesn’t have the complicated setting of "crossing through" and "parallel time and space" and the narrative structure of "Mobius ring" like I want to see you, and it doesn’t have the sad tears like The Story More Sad than Sadness, but it arouses the emotional resonance of the audience through the fantasy love story of a couple crossing in two directions.
The reason why these three films are compared is that they have a common name behind the scenes: Lin Xiaoqian. As a post-80s director of Taiwan, China who is good at directing romantic films, The Story More Sad than Sadness directed by Lin Xiaoqian and I Want to See You, both of which have achieved good box office results in China in recent years.
Countdown Love You, as a heavy romantic film in May 1st this year, also attracts people’s attention. In the film, Chen Feiyu and Zhou also played the roles of hero and heroine who made unremitting efforts and sacrifices to fight against fate and save their lovers, which was touching. This pair of first-time screen couples CP also won the audience’s affirmation.
In Chinese and foreign film and television works, the characters’ identity dislocation is caused by the hero and heroine traveling back to the past, which leads to strong drama conflict and emotional memory, and it is not uncommon to create jokes, tears or suspense colors.
For the time being, only in recent years, there are representative works such as Riding the Wind and Waves, goodbye mr. loser, Hi, Mom, Hello, Brother, I Want to See You, all of which are high-grossing films, which shows the audience’s love for this kind of films.
Countdown Love You tells the story that Gu Yuxuan, the hero played by Chen Feiyu, and Han Shuyan, the heroine played by Zhou Ye, are childhood friends. After many years of reunion, they fell in love with each other and fell in love with each other. Unexpectedly, in the face of fate, they traveled back to the past in an attempt to save each other’s lives.
The biggest difference between this film and most previous time-travel movies is the setting of two-way travel. It is no longer a unilateral crossing of the hero or heroine, but a two-way crossing. The time to travel back to the past is not long from the present, and it is impossible to cause the dislocation of the identity of the characters, but the sense of powerlessness that is difficult to change the fate of the lover is even stronger.
Time-travel films usually have an event or prop that triggers back time. Hi, Mom and Braving the Wind and Waves were both triggered by car accidents. goodbye mr. loser is a dream that Charlotte had on the toilet after drinking, and the crossing prop of Hello, Brother is a special ring. Countdown Love You is a birthday candle left by my mother to the hero Gu Yuxuan.
This kind of crossing props is unique and meaningful. Candle is not only the love left by Gu Yuxuan by his dead mother, but also represents Gu Yuxuan’s desperate love to save his girlfriend, which means love and dedication. It is called "and the silk-worms of spring will weave until they die, and every night the candles will weep their wicks away".
Not only that, the careful audience will also find that all the scenes about time passing through the cycle in the film have the image of candles. Whether it is the candle on the dining table or the candle pattern on the carpet, it is naturally integrated into the narrative picture.
The fantasy setting of the hero and heroine’s two-way crossing enhances the appreciation of Countdown Love You, but the most touching and emotional resonance of the film lies in the unremitting efforts and sacrifices of the hero Gu Yuxuan and the heroine Han Shuyan to fight their fate and save their lovers, and the double cherish of their love after crossing back to the past.
In the film, the mysterious grandfather who lives in a strange hut in a maze of concrete columns tells Gu Yuxuan that some things are predestined and hard to change. Sure enough, shortly afterwards, Han Shuyan had an accident on her way back after quarreling with Gu Yuxuan.
In order to save his girlfriend and fight his fate, Gu Yuxuan crossed back to the morning of the accident with the help of birthday candles left by his mother, so that everything could start all over again. But after several attempts, no matter how hard he tried, tragedy was inevitable. In the end, he spared no effort to protect his girlfriend with his life, and finally changed his girlfriend’s fate.
After being rescued, Han Shuyan learned from Gu Yuxuan’s friends that her boyfriend had traveled back to the past several times to save her. After she calmed down, she began to think of ways to travel back to before they met. She risked her life in the home where Gu Yuxuan lived as a child and found a birthday candle that could trigger crossing …
Can Han Shuyan finally save Gu Yuxuan? If it can be saved, what kind of huge price will she pay for it? You will know after watching the film.
In the process of crossing back to the past to save each other, the strong love that the couple showed for each other at all costs was the most touching love. Among them, after several efforts to understand that it is difficult to save his girlfriend, the scene of Gu Yuxuan proposing to her romantically in advance can arouse emotional resonance.
In real life, many people will not only try their best to treat their loved ones, lovers or friends who are terminally ill and have little time, but also cherish the present time. The experience of Gu Yuxuan in the film is empathetic.
Although the main stars of Countdown Love You are all young actors, both their image temperament and acting skills are in line with the role. Chen Feiyu and Zhou, the two leading stars, are also the first screen lovers to play together, but they have no sense of disobedience.
Chen Feiyu’s tall and handsome appearance and clear and firm eyes will make people feel good, and he also believes that Gu Yuxuan, who he plays, can protect his beloved girlfriend to the death. In the film, he said, "You like blind box dolls, so I became a designer. I like sweets, so you became a cake maker. It’s impressive.
In Better Days, Zhou also played the villain Wei Lai, a bad girl who bullied her classmates. With her excellent performance, she was not only deeply remembered by many audiences, but also won the Golden Rooster Award and the Hundred Flowers Award nomination for best supporting actress.
This time, she plays the heroine Han Shuyan in Countdown Love You. She is a pure and kind-hearted beautiful girl. At first, she was worried about whether she could get out of the preconceived impression left by Wei Lai. After reading it, I found that Zhou was also fully qualified for the role, especially the crying scene in the film, which showed her good acting skills.
In addition, Xiaotang Zhao’s female No.2 online celebrity Li Yu and Sun Tianyu’s male No.2 Jiang Taiqi also left a deep impression. They experienced the emotional drama of marriage, breakup and reconciliation, which just complemented Gu Yuxuan’s love with Han Shuyan.
Countdown Love You, with fantasy as the shell, love as the core and fate as the connotation, is romantic and grounded, but dreamy and real, and it is a good fantasy love commercial film.