“When shall we leave?”

Frustrated realities of Generation Z in unforgiving contemporary China, exposed to consumerism and obsessed with looking younger. Stray teenagers wander in a gigantic, shiny, alluring multi-storey shopping mall with countless elevators and escalators in twin skyscrapers named “Global Harbor” in Shanghai. The mall opens at 10 am to offer dozens of distractions, and temptations for a whole worthless day in a surreal indoor space with fake snowflakes.

Chinese director Jiajun 'Oscar' Zhang and Korean writer Hee Young Pyun join forces again after the widely recognised short “If You See Her, Say Hello”. They blur boundaries, break the rules of regular narrative, and use mobile devices and surveillance cameras to experiment with parallel stories on a similar timeline and in identical places. We follow two seemingly separate romantic tales, where the same actors reverse their desires in encounters with usual passersby, controlling vendors, rich clients, or wacky entertainers.

Two melancholic stories may be watched in any order to varying perspectives and interpretations. Wannabe architect Yoyo has a crush on break-dancing instructor Lan Tian. She persistently follows him with calm apathy. On possibly the next or previous day Lan Tian is obsessed with the cosmetics salesgirl. He shyly but firmly observes unsuspecting Yoyo from a distance and uses a phone to zoom in on her to record memories.

Edvinas Pukšta