This review may contain spoilers
We have everything in the end, just not each other
Us and Them is such a gem, and honestly… what the hell was the director thinking when making something this raw??? This movie feels like a reality check disguised as a love story. It follows Xiaoxiao and Jiang Qing, two young people leaving their hometown for Beijing to chase a better life, basically starting with nothing but their dreams and each other. And the movie doesn’t romanticize their struggle at all. Poverty, being looked down on because of their education, money problems, love scams, doing shady things just to survive, the pressure to look successful in front of people back home… life keeps hitting them like an old friend who never runs out of problems. Yet through all of it, they have each other. They are together at their absolute lowest, and that’s what makes everything later hurt like hell.
High five to the director because the rawness here is insane. The camera direction, cinematography, changing seasons, crowded buildings, tiny rented rooms, cold streets—it all feels so lived-in. Even the way the seasons change makes you feel how much time has passed and how their relationship slowly changes with it. The poverty doesn’t feel like some aesthetic tragedy; it feels genuinely uncomfortable and real. And Jing Boran + Zhou Dongyu??? A FEAST. This is truly the kind of acting where you finally understand why movie actors are treated as the top chain of the entertainment industry. They barely need words. Their expressions, silence, little gestures and the way they look at each other already tell you everything. They genuinely feel like two people who have loved, fought, struggled and grown up together.
But then everything starts falling apart. After New Year’s Eve, their arguments become more frequent, and honestly I understood Jiang Qing’s insecurity. They left home to make money, so he desperately didn’t want to return looking like a failure. He pretends he’s successful, pretends he has his own place and even an address, while he’s actually still living in a building packed with tenants. And the more he tries to prove that he’s not a failure, the more frustrated and insecure he becomes. Xiaoxiao, meanwhile, is just tired. She loves him, but love cannot pay the rent, fix their future or magically make survival easier. Eventually she leaves—not because she doesn’t love him anymore, but because she’s exhausted from living like this. Then Jiang Qing finally succeeds. His game gets released, his career takes off, he gets money, a house, an actual address… everything he thought Xiaoxiao wanted. And THIS is where the misunderstanding kills me. She wanted a home. He thought she wanted a house. He worked his ass off thinking, “I finally got everything you wanted, so why won’t you come back?” But she wanted the feeling of belonging, not four walls. By the time he understood, it was already too late.
And then the plane scene??? I was genuinely stupid enough to think, okay maybe they’ll finally get another chance. Ten years later, Jiang Qing is in business class while Xiaoxiao is in economy, basically showing us that he finally became the successful man he always wanted to be. They sit together, talk about the past, and for a second it feels like maybe the universe is finally giving them another chance. THEN HIS PHONE RINGS. A VIDEO CALL FROM HIS SON. EXCUSE ME???? I actually wanted to throw something. He has a wife. A son. A whole life. And suddenly Xiaoxiao says that she could have been his wife, but now she would only look like a homewrecker. THAT HURTS. Because you can tell they still love each other, but what are they supposed to do with that love now? They finally have the money, house, career and stability they were fighting for back then… just not each other. And honestly, I watched their conversation with a guilty feeling too, because no matter how obvious it is that something between them never really died, he has a family now. Love doesn’t erase consequences.
And that stupidly cruel line kept coming back to me: maybe a man only truly loves someone once, and everything after that is just surviving. WHAT A VILLAIN SENTENCE. I don’t even know if I believe it. I really don’t want to. People can love again. People can build happy families again. But watching Jiang Qing and Xiaoxiao made me understand why that sentence feels believable. Jiang Qing moved on with his life—married, had a son, became successful—but when he sees Xiaoxiao again, you can still feel that old love underneath everything. Meanwhile, Xiaoxiao still hasn’t found someone she loves enough to build another life with, and she still doesn’t have the home she was longing for all those years ago. Maybe Jiang Qing learned how to survive without her, while Xiaoxiao never really found another place that felt like home. And then his dad’s letter absolutely finished me. His father loved Xiaoxiao so much, already knew these two might not end up together, but still considered her his daughter. Even he couldn’t completely let her go. I WAS BAWLING.
What frustrates me most is that I still wanted them together. Even after everything. Even knowing it probably shouldn’t happen. Because what if Jiang Qing had gotten on that train and chased her? What if Xiaoxiao stayed? What if they had met at a different time, when they were more mature and financially stable? Maybe they would’ve been happy. Or maybe they would’ve stayed poor and miserable and eventually broken up anyway. That’s the cruel part—we will never know. Maybe if they had stayed together, Jiang Qing would never have become the man he is now. Maybe Xiaoxiao would have found her home with him, but they would have lost everything else they eventually achieved. Life basically forced them to choose, and neither of them knew what they were choosing at the time.
That’s why this movie hurts so fucking much. There’s no real villain. No cheating. No huge betrayal. No one simply stopped loving the other. It was poverty, insecurity, timing, circumstances and two people who were just too tired and too young to understand what they actually needed. They were each other’s home when they had nothing, but somehow couldn’t stay together after they finally had everything. Sometimes you can love someone deeply, be perfect for each other at one point in your life, and still not be meant to stay. And honestly? That is such a horrible reality check. I finished this movie thinking about all the "what ifs" instead of the ending, and maybe that’s exactly why it hurts. They finally got the life they dreamed of. They just didn’t get to live it together.
High five to the director because the rawness here is insane. The camera direction, cinematography, changing seasons, crowded buildings, tiny rented rooms, cold streets—it all feels so lived-in. Even the way the seasons change makes you feel how much time has passed and how their relationship slowly changes with it. The poverty doesn’t feel like some aesthetic tragedy; it feels genuinely uncomfortable and real. And Jing Boran + Zhou Dongyu??? A FEAST. This is truly the kind of acting where you finally understand why movie actors are treated as the top chain of the entertainment industry. They barely need words. Their expressions, silence, little gestures and the way they look at each other already tell you everything. They genuinely feel like two people who have loved, fought, struggled and grown up together.
But then everything starts falling apart. After New Year’s Eve, their arguments become more frequent, and honestly I understood Jiang Qing’s insecurity. They left home to make money, so he desperately didn’t want to return looking like a failure. He pretends he’s successful, pretends he has his own place and even an address, while he’s actually still living in a building packed with tenants. And the more he tries to prove that he’s not a failure, the more frustrated and insecure he becomes. Xiaoxiao, meanwhile, is just tired. She loves him, but love cannot pay the rent, fix their future or magically make survival easier. Eventually she leaves—not because she doesn’t love him anymore, but because she’s exhausted from living like this. Then Jiang Qing finally succeeds. His game gets released, his career takes off, he gets money, a house, an actual address… everything he thought Xiaoxiao wanted. And THIS is where the misunderstanding kills me. She wanted a home. He thought she wanted a house. He worked his ass off thinking, “I finally got everything you wanted, so why won’t you come back?” But she wanted the feeling of belonging, not four walls. By the time he understood, it was already too late.
And then the plane scene??? I was genuinely stupid enough to think, okay maybe they’ll finally get another chance. Ten years later, Jiang Qing is in business class while Xiaoxiao is in economy, basically showing us that he finally became the successful man he always wanted to be. They sit together, talk about the past, and for a second it feels like maybe the universe is finally giving them another chance. THEN HIS PHONE RINGS. A VIDEO CALL FROM HIS SON. EXCUSE ME???? I actually wanted to throw something. He has a wife. A son. A whole life. And suddenly Xiaoxiao says that she could have been his wife, but now she would only look like a homewrecker. THAT HURTS. Because you can tell they still love each other, but what are they supposed to do with that love now? They finally have the money, house, career and stability they were fighting for back then… just not each other. And honestly, I watched their conversation with a guilty feeling too, because no matter how obvious it is that something between them never really died, he has a family now. Love doesn’t erase consequences.
And that stupidly cruel line kept coming back to me: maybe a man only truly loves someone once, and everything after that is just surviving. WHAT A VILLAIN SENTENCE. I don’t even know if I believe it. I really don’t want to. People can love again. People can build happy families again. But watching Jiang Qing and Xiaoxiao made me understand why that sentence feels believable. Jiang Qing moved on with his life—married, had a son, became successful—but when he sees Xiaoxiao again, you can still feel that old love underneath everything. Meanwhile, Xiaoxiao still hasn’t found someone she loves enough to build another life with, and she still doesn’t have the home she was longing for all those years ago. Maybe Jiang Qing learned how to survive without her, while Xiaoxiao never really found another place that felt like home. And then his dad’s letter absolutely finished me. His father loved Xiaoxiao so much, already knew these two might not end up together, but still considered her his daughter. Even he couldn’t completely let her go. I WAS BAWLING.
What frustrates me most is that I still wanted them together. Even after everything. Even knowing it probably shouldn’t happen. Because what if Jiang Qing had gotten on that train and chased her? What if Xiaoxiao stayed? What if they had met at a different time, when they were more mature and financially stable? Maybe they would’ve been happy. Or maybe they would’ve stayed poor and miserable and eventually broken up anyway. That’s the cruel part—we will never know. Maybe if they had stayed together, Jiang Qing would never have become the man he is now. Maybe Xiaoxiao would have found her home with him, but they would have lost everything else they eventually achieved. Life basically forced them to choose, and neither of them knew what they were choosing at the time.
That’s why this movie hurts so fucking much. There’s no real villain. No cheating. No huge betrayal. No one simply stopped loving the other. It was poverty, insecurity, timing, circumstances and two people who were just too tired and too young to understand what they actually needed. They were each other’s home when they had nothing, but somehow couldn’t stay together after they finally had everything. Sometimes you can love someone deeply, be perfect for each other at one point in your life, and still not be meant to stay. And honestly? That is such a horrible reality check. I finished this movie thinking about all the "what ifs" instead of the ending, and maybe that’s exactly why it hurts. They finally got the life they dreamed of. They just didn’t get to live it together.
Was this review helpful to you?
