The Movie: Ever Since We Love / 万物生长
The Director: Li Yu
The Cast: Han Geng, Fan Bingbing, Qi Xi
The Story: A young man navigates multiple loves in his life while trying to get through medical school.
The Review:
Director Li Yu adapted this story from Everything Grows, a best selling novel written by Feng Tang and the story takes a very unique look at territory we've seen so many times before. Normally the college coming of age experience sees a young man or group of young men struggling through classes while partying as much as possible with any female characters being relegated to girlfriends, bit parts, or basic party attendee number 4 and classmate number 2 type roles.
This time around, we get to see the other side of that with two women, played by Qi Xi and Fan Bingbing, who are both fully realized characters and there is authentic interconnectivity and fallout from the actions of Qiu Shui, the main character played by Han Geng. Yu explores the dynamics of relationships in a way that is more true to life than what we typically see in movies and while it's a bit more of a struggle, I feel like it made for a more satisfying experience.
The characters are relatable not because you want to be them but because you've been them and you understand the decisions they make both good and bad. It's also fun to watch Qiu Shui stumble his way through college alongside his friends and that makes for a nice balance with the heavier drama portions of the movie. Han Geng's performance is good and the highlights are when he is paired with Fan Bingbing although I believe Qi Xi has some of the best overall moments of the entire movie.
The Verdict:
Ever Since We Love is a romantic dramedy that looks at relationships and the fallout of bad decisions in a unique and relatable way. Strong performances from the cast carry the film and helped to keep my attention from beginning to end.
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