Maius Intra Qua Extra

I strongly suggest watching the movie first.

Don't click on the spoiler cut here in this post before you've seen it.

Here's my non-spoilery review post of the movie: https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/811203.html

the twist explained - spoiler!

So Zheng Yuxing's secret is that he's gay.

The gender of his crush, DJ Ming, is never mentioned throughout the movie.

In spoken Chinese, the personal pronoun is gender neutral, so that works fine.

Of course, Chinese movies by law have to have subtitles, and the movie makers apparently decided to intentionally mislead the audience by using the female pronoun whenever Zheng Yuxing talks about Ming. I'm not quite sure why they did this. I don't think it was to get around censorship because an offscreen mention of a gay relationship would not be subject to censorship. But maybe they just enjoyed making the audience assume the wrong thing at first, just like with Chen Chen's secret.

Zheng Yuxing's doorman friend at the disco accuses him of bringing Chen Chen as his beard because he was dumped by Ming.

Ming never speaks when Zheng Yuxing calls him on the phone, so we never hear his voice.

The first real clue is when Zheng Yuxing's father tells the other parents that his son would never do anything to Chen Chen. This is slightly annoying, since in a western show/movie, I would expect this to be a normal attitude. In all Asian dramas I've seen so far, this is sadly not the case. Everyone always assumes that all men are horndogs and not to be trusted when alone with a woman. So, in a Chinese movie, this was the first dead giveaway.

The second real clue is when Chen Chen and Zheng Yuxing arrive at the music festival and look at the poster of DJ Ming, and Zheng Yuxing says, "Now you owe me a secret," because even though we don't see Ming's face, Chen Chen does and that alone constitutes knowing his secret.

The third clue is in that same scene, when some girls pass by behind them and say "Ming is so handsome" (帅 shuai), which is - just like in English - only used for men. The English subs ruin this, too, by translating it as "Ming is so cool." :/

All of these are easy to miss, but taken together, they're pretty clear and obviously intentional.

my thoughts - also spoilery

I loved all the "we need to be brave and more honest with ourselves" talks Zheng Yuxing and Chen Chen had with each other, because she unknowingly helped him accept himself. And it's just such a wonderful motto for a movie in general. <3

I loved how everyone is wrong about everyone else in this movie. The teacher is wrong about the kids, Chen Chen is wrong about her mother, her parents are wrong about her, Zheng Yuxing is wrong about Ming. It's so well done.

I still don't know whether Chen Chen originally tried to kill herself in the pool or just went in there to think, and then came up with a better solution than killing herself. The scene at the festival with the lady on the string implied that going to the festival/music had something to do with... saving her life? Or just making her see reason and becoming an adult? I have no idea, that was a bit too symbolic for me. :D

I wonder in hindsight how open and naive Zheng Yuxing is at school. If he felt inadequate or unaccepted for being (secretly) gay, I would suspect him to be a bit less carefree. It's possible for him to be like this, that he really doesn't care about being an outsider, I just thought it less likely, because the movie shows us in other scenes how very lonely he is. For me, it doesn't match with the carefree attitude.

It's almost cut off by the fade to black, but when Zheng Yuxing collapses in the hotel lobby, after his father stands back at first, he then rushes to his side after all. <3

I love how Zheng Yuxing is not at all interested in school or doing well in the exam, and I expected this to be shown as a negative thing in a Chinese movie. But it wasn't. He was obviously very motivated to be the best at music, and he put all his energy into that, rightly so, and in the end he did make his dream come true. I thought that was amazing.

I'm not sure he really would have kissed Chen Chen - that kiss felt like fan service more than anything. I guess I can see a young guy who's just been told that he's her crush go, 'Maybe I will like kissing her,' and only after that finding out that he really doesn't. But - again - it seems unlikely. He would have hugged her instead. (That said, I am not complaining about the fanservice. I am a fan of that kind of service.)

I wish we could have seen a little bit more about their relationship in the coming years, not just her going to the concert. That felt a tiny bit abrupt, but overall, the movie answered all my other questions, and it felt like a satisfactory ending.

Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng in Upcoming Summer

Upcoming Summer (盛夏未来) is a 2021 Chinese coming-of-age movie starring Wu Lei as Zheng Yuxing, wannabe DJ, and Zhang Zifeng as Chen Chen, A-student. The two high-schoolers get thrown together through a white lie she tells her parents after failing the gao kao. Zheng Yuxing was a no-show at the exam, and the two bond.

Does it have a happy ending?

ending spoilers

Well. If the happy ending is them being together at the end: no. If the happy ending is them becoming good friends: yes. It's a coming of age movie and as such fleeting and melancholy. I loved this movie, and even as a die-hard romance fan, this movie gave me everything I wanted.

Where to watch? You can watch it on Netflix here. (I did not manage to find it by title within Netflix itself, no matter what I selected as my preferences. If the link I gave here doesn't work for you, try googling for it.) (If you can't find it, dm me.)

This movie is brilliant. The main characters all have secrets - and each one is slowly revealed throughout the movie. I'm not going to spoil any of them - although I suspect that I would get more of you to watch it if I did. *g*

But trust me on that one: you should go into it unspoiled. I did, and it shook me. I wasn't quite sure I had picked up on the hints or not, and whether I had imagined it all, so I went and watched the whole movie again the next day. I had not imagined it. The movie is very cleverly done. (It's admittedly a bit harder to see if you don't understand a bit of Chinese and are unfamiliar with cdrama tropes, and even then you can miss it.)

The movie plays with different expectations a lot. What parents expect of their children, what teachers expect of their students, what children expect of their parents, what people expect of life. What viewers expect of a coming-of-age movie. :) A lot of those expectations are challenged throughout the movie, and the characters have to reexamine their choices. (And the viewers have to rewatch the movie. :D)

The two students are very cute. They both act like 18-year-olds would, in my opinion. Opinionated, stubborn, looking for connection, hopelessly romantic. It all feels realistic. I'm in no way objective when it comes to Wu Lei. I loved him in this, that's no surprise. I didn't know Zheng Zifeng before this, but she's amazing, too.

My favorite character in the whole movie is probably Mrs Qu, the teacher. She's no-nonsense but caring at the same time (within the constraints of being a teacher in China).

I really don't want to say anything more about the movie, because any plot points I could mention are taking away from the experience, and there is not that much plot in the first place.

But what I should mention is that one of the major elements of the movie is music. Zheng Yuxing, wanting to become a DJ, has a very intimate connection to music and to the electronic music scene. Very unusually for a Chinese movie, the main songs are western songs, and they are used really well.

Coldplay & the Chainsmokers | Kidnap Kid | May Day

The two western songs:

Watch on YouTube

No superhero, no fairytale bliss, just somebody I can turn to, somebody I can kiss. I want something just like this.

Watch on YouTube

The friends we made a long the way. A journey you can't recreate.


The rest of the OST is by popular Taiwanese(?) band May Day (五月天). Here are two songs from the OST, one performed by May Day itself (and he sings in such a beautiful low register for this <3) , and one performed by Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Some pictures (hopefully not spoilery)

Peeking


Making a couple video


Heart to Heart


At Zheng Yuxing's favorite club


Lots of beautifully lit shots


More cinematography


At the music festival


At the music festival

I will make a separate spoiler post about the movie, you can come discuss it with me there once you've seen it.