Review of Better Days / 少年的你 by Derek Tsang

Anyone who knows me in real life thinks that I am pretty put together and get my work done efficiently. This movie, Better Days, is solid proof that I am a major procrastinator all the way through.

I meant to watch this movie when it came out originally, which, by the time I am writing this blog post, was over three years ago.

Somehow I knew a lot about this movie, had seen the trailer multiple times, bought it on iTunes two years ago, and still put off watching it. I even checked a DVD copy out at my local library and still didn’t end up watching it somehow.

It was after returning that DVD and feeling the burn of shame that I didn’t even watch it after checking it out that I sat down one night, turned on the Apple TV my father bought thinking it would give him free Iranian television (spoiler: it did not), and decided to watch the movie I had purchased all those years ago.

And it was pretty good. I was planted onto my couch through the very end, and even my sister showed up at some point and watched some of it. That’s impressive, considering she hates subtitles with a burning passion.

Onwards with the review!

A bullied high schooler and a street thug befriend each other, and he decides to protect her from those wanting to do harm.

Our main protagonist in Better Days is Chen Nian, who, after watching one of her bullied classmates commit suicide, finds the bullies now coming after her since their original target is dead.

These students and classmates of her are cruel, and Chen Nian doesn’t come from the best circumstances herself.

All she wants is to do well on her college entrance exams so she can move far away from everyone, to Beijing, but one night, her life changes when she sees a young man being beat up by his fellow thugs. His name is Xiao Bei, and when she is forced to kiss him by the other boys, their fates become entwined.

At school, Chen Nian’s bullies elevate their antics, resorting to physical violence and spreading rumors about Chen Nian and her family to further ostracize her from her peers.

A police investigation on the student’s suicide leads the cops towards the source: the bullies who are now bullying Chen Nian.

The police discover Chen Nian is being bullied, and the students are suspended because of it. But this isn’t going to solve anything for her; when they come back to school, they are fueled by a new kind of hatred, one sparked by the fact they had to own up to their actions.

The bullying gets worse, and Chen Nian is pushed down the stairs while at school. No one does anything.

At the same time, Chen Nina begins to befriend Xiao Bei. He mades lewd jokes the second time they meet and she ends up in his house, which is a small room that’s kind of rundown, but Chen Nian ends up making a request for him: to protect her. She just wants to take her exams and quietly leave town forever.

He agrees, and begins to tail her whenever she heads to school. The students bullying her start to claim she’s seducing men in order for them to do her bidding, as he prevents them from attacking Chen Nian when she heads home from school each night.

Chen Nian and Xiao Bei end up spending a ton of time together, and there are plenty of cinematic shots of them on Xiao Bei’s motorcycle. What’s interesting about this movie is that I didn’t get a romantic sense from their relationship, which a lot of movies might’ve pushed to fulfill the romance agenda that goes on in a lot films.

It was very much like a brother and sister relationship a lot of the time, so when the final climax does happen and Xiao Bei pretends to sexually assault it, it feels so wrong. But to get to that point, we must learn about what happened.

Xiao Bei, when at an Internet cafe with friends, ends up being selected for a police lineup to find a rapist. They laugh it off while shouting the line the rapist supposedly said to the girl, but without Xiao Bei tailing her, Chen Nian is attacked by her bullies.

They record her and they beat her and haphazardly cut off her hair. Bloodied, she returns to Xiao Bei’s home, and when he returns, he discovers how Chen Nian has been attacked. He shaves her head for her, then shaves his own head in solidarity, upset at what happened to the girl he promised to protect.

One night, Wei Lai, the ringleader of the bullies, begs Chen Nian not to go to the police with the footage they took of their torture of the girl. Chen Nian shoves her and Wei Lai, rolling down the steep steps, dies.

With the help of Xiao Bei, they dispose of the body, but when a storm passes through, the body is found and the police begin an investigation. Chen Nian becomes the prime suspect once the police learn about the torture video, but she takes her exams, passing with flying colors.

When the police begin to close in on her and Xiao Bei, they are forced to pretend not to know each other, and Xiao Bei tries to take all the blame.

But they cannot pretend too long, and the cop knows Chen Nian well. He tricks her into giving a confession, and suggests they both confess to get the jail time down. They do, and, at the end of the movie, we see Chen Nian becomes a teacher helping out her students. Xiao Bei is still lingering in the shadows, watching over her as she heads home each day.

Overall Thoughts

Better Days is a pretty solid movie.

There are some gorgeous shots scattered throughout, and the storyline is very relevant in today’s world, not just in Hong Kong and China. I thought the acting and cinematography was excellent, but I think the movie just didn’t live up to my expectations at the end of the day.

I think I thought there was something more about it that would captivate me, but if failed to do so at the end of the day. As we all know, taste is subjective, so I’m sure someone else loves this movie to the moon and back.

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