Kevin McGeary

    mcgeary@gmail.com

    THE differences between any two people (age, gender, income) are always outweighed by the similarities. In “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Andrew Carnegie tells readers that no matter how different they may think themselves to someone like Al Capone, it is impossible to know for certain that, given the same upbringing, experiences and pressures, they would have been any different.

    Coming-of-age romance “Yesterday Once More,” based on the 2012 novel by Liu Tong and directed by Yoyo Yao, provides an entertaining window into the early lives of people born in China in the 1980s. Set in a high school, exam stress, a regimented schedule, and parental pressure along with restrictions on hairstyle, dress and dealings with the opposite sex turn the characters into the adults they will become.

    In 2001, Lin Tianjiao (Guo Shutong) is top of her class in most subjects and sports and set to study finance at the nation’s best university. Class clown Gao Xiang (Bai Jingting) accepts the blame for an act of cheating that would have derailed Lin’s academic career.

    An unlikely romance blossoms between Lin, whose mother (Liu Mintao) insists that in high school there are no friends, only competitors, and Gao, who lives alone with his heartwarmingly wise grandfather (Wang Deshun, who had a similar role in “Miss Granny”). Throughout the ensuing conflicts, no character is judged and no piece of bad behavior goes unredeemed.

    Lin’s affinity with Gao and their friends Ou Xiaoyang (Ding Guansen) and Lu Tiantian (Wang Herun) who are in a clandestine romance proves to be a distraction from her bid to win the Three Good Award, a provincial-level accolade that would be life-defining for her parents and career-defining for her teacher (Su Youpeng). Lin becomes fascinated with astronomy which is not considered a serious academic subject but, along with English (which they only study coldly and mechanically) represents an escape from their unglamorous surroundings.

    Knowing that they will soon have to join the ranks of the enemy, the non-adult characters commit a series of rebellious acts that are pure cinema. These include Ou and Lu shaving their heads in solidarity with each other; Gao and friends repainting Lin’s classroom; and Gao hang-gliding over the playground, a scene that, though reminiscent of Heath Ledger in “10 Things I Hate about You,” nods to the social problem of teen suicides.

    One of the film’s many virtues is that it does not shy away from the ugly side of society. The stigma of his father being in jail is the reason why Gao appears to have given up on life. Lin’s tiger mother and liberal father keep up the charade of marriage despite being secretly divorced. The characters’ enthusiasm for learning is extinguished by the need to perform well in school.

    Most of the laughs come from the characters’ immaturity (there is a scene involving a urine-filled water balloon) and the most touching scenes are the ones that tell Gao’s backstory. Every character is believable and sympathetic given their circumstances though, when the inevitable English song is sung, one wonders why every fictional character in today’s China has a professional singing voice. Lin’s mother would surely have destroyed her musical talent in early childhood.

    “Yesterday Once More” will prove educational for anybody who did not go through the characters’ experiences and nostalgic for all who did. Though set just 15 years ago, much of the action would have unfolded very differently if the characters had access to 2016 technology. With both tears and laughter, it enables an entire generation to reminisce about the way they were.

    The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen.