Taiwanese filmmaker Rene Liu’s 2018 film “Us and Them”, which is currently available on Netflix, is a bittersweet romance drama between two different people looking back on their flawed but precious love in the past. At first, their past seems to remain as a distant memory with some bitterness, but then it is apparent that they still love and care about each other despite that, even though their paths are diverging again as before.

The story begins with your average Meet Cute moment between its two youthful lead characters, Lin Jianqing (Jing Boran) and Fang Xiaoxiao (Zhou Dongyu). It is the eve of Chinese New Year’s Day in Beijing, and they and many other people get on a train to their hometown. When Xiaoxiao happens to lose her train ticket, Jianqing helps her a bit to her relief, and she soon comes to join him and his several friends as the train is going to their hometown.

Although her parents do not live in their hometown anymore, Xiaoxiao simply goes there for an old time’s sake, and Jianqing gladly invites her to a dinner party at his father’s little local restaurant. Although they still feel a bit awkward to each other as total strangers, they become more friendly to each other as enjoying the party along with others including Jiangqing’s father, and they continue to stay in touch with each other even after they eventually go back to Beijing.

And we see how much they struggle for earning their meager living in the city day by day. Jianqing has aspired to become a successful video game developer someday, but his dream remains out of his reach as he remains stuck in a menial job along with his several colleagues. In case of Xiaoxiao, she simply hopes for having a good life with someone she can love, but, alas, she is not so wise in her choices of men, and she often comes to lean more on Jianqing.

Of course, Xiaoxiao and Jianqing still simply regard each other as merely close friends, but then the situation is changed a bit later when Xiaoxiao moves into Jianqing’s shabby little apartment. Although it looks a bit too small and stuffy for them, they get more accustomed to each other as days go by, and, what do you know, there eventually comes the point where they cannot ignore their growing romantic feelings anymore.

However, we already know from the beginning that their romantic relationship does not last that long. The movie occasionally moves forward to around 10 years later, and this part, which is incidentally shot in black and white, revolves around an accidental encounter between Jianqing and Xiaoxiao, who happen to be on the same airplane on the eve of Chinese New Year’s Day. When the flight is later canceled due to heavy snow, they stay at a nearby hotel, and they certainly have a lot of things to talk with each other.

The mood certainly becomes a bit romantic as they talk more and more with each other, but both Xiaoxiao and Jianqing are also reminded of how they became distant to each other in the end. During their first several years, they happily supported each other as sticking to each other, but then they often clashed with each other a lot due to their personality differences. They still pretended to be all right with each other in front of Jianqing’s father whenever they came to their hometown for the Chinese New Year’s Day, and Jianqing’s father came to have more expectation on his son’s possible marriage in the future.

And they also see how much they have been changed since their breakup. Both of Jianqing and Xiaoxiao are now having each own fairly good life, and they are not that willing to get closer to each other again. Nevertheless, they also cannot help but rekindle the memories of their romance relationship in the past, and it is poignant to see when they admit their remaining feelings to each other while also accepting what has been lost forever between them.

The movie surely depends a lot on the romantic vibe generated between its two appealing lead performers. While Jing Boran steadily holds the ground along the story, Zhou Dongyu, who has been one of the most engaging Chinese actresses during last several years thanks to her stellar turns in “Soul Mate” (2016) and “Better Days” (2019), often shines as effortlessly exuding her own natural charm and presence across the screen. As these two wonderful performers deftly revolve around each other, we get to know more of their characters’ personality and humanity, and the movie also pays some attention to Jianqing’s father, who has his own moments later in the story as discerning a lot of what is going on between his son and Xiaoxiao despite getting older and blind.

In conclusion, “Us and Them”, which is recently followed by the South Korean remake version, is often familiar and predictable in terms of story and characters, but it still engages us thanks to not only its two good lead performers but also Liu’s competent direction. Although this is her first feature film (She has been mainly known for her acting and music career, by the way), the overall result is fairly slick and solid on the whole, and she and her crew members including cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing, who did a marvelous job in Wong Kar-wai’s great film “In the Mood for Love” (2000), bring enough mood and sensitivity to the film. In short, it succeeds as much as intended, so I will not grumble for now as preparing to watch the South Korean remake version.