The quote that opens Chinese director Liu Jian’s shaggy but amiable new animated feature is instructive. “To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life” is a …
and Bi Gan — is impressive, but also not something many outside China will recognize until the surprise of the closing credits.
There’s a slightly frustrating lack of a single point of view, in a narrative that favors first one, then another of a loosely linked group of peers. But initially, proceedings revolve around friends and collaborators Xiaojun and Rabbit , two students who, as the film begins, are working on what Rabbit declares to be the kind of masterpiece that will win them a major prize.
The guys hang out often with part-time hairdresser and full-time art philosopher Zhao Youcai , whose presence on campus is tolerated even though, despite multiple attempts, he has never been accepted. In the threesome’s cyclical conversations, sometimes joined by fellow students nicknamed mostly for their weight — Skinny Horse, Chubster, etc.
As rounded individuals, despite less screen time, the two women in the guys’ orbit fare a little better. Hao Lili is a soft-spoken bespectacled piano student with a hesitantly reciprocated crush on Xiaojun, but also a practical approach to her future that sees her encouraging the attentions of a much steadier if duller suitor.
For those inclined to see Chinese culture as a fortress impenetrable to outsiders, the sheer relatability of these likably aimless young people, with their unthinking self-absorption and tendency to believe that every new thought of theirs is a brand-new object in the world, might be a small revelation.
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