Plot Explained Spoilers guaranteed!
Plot Explained

Browse by genre

Someday or One Day (2022) movie poster

Plot Summary

Someday or One Day (2022) Plot Summary Explained

Release, runtime and language
2022 · 107 mins · Chinese
Loading streaming availability…
Directed by
Huang Tien-jen
Starring
Ko Chia-Yen, Jin Shijia, JC Lin, Greg Hsu, Berry Wen-i Kuo, Chang Kuang-chen

Two young people, Li Zi Wei and Huang Yu Xuan, unexpectedly meet in 2009. They each carry a sense of longing and unresolved feelings from their past. A strange accident throws them into a recurring time loop, revealing a deep, enduring love that has spanned countless lifetimes. Their connection transcends time and space, but their love comes at a significant cost. Faced with the possibility of starting over, they must confront whether to embrace a chance encounter or risk repeating the painful memories that bind them together.

On this page (5)
  1. 1 Where to watch
  2. 2 What happens: full plot
  3. 3 Plot questions answered
  4. 4 Movie threads
  5. 5 Every angle
Loading streaming availability…

Full plot summary · contains spoilers

What Happens in Someday or One Day: Full Plot Summary

The whole story of Someday or One Day (2022) explained, from the opening scene to the final frame: every key event, every twist and what it all adds up to. Read it as a quick recap before the sequel, to check a scene you missed, or to finally understand what really happened.

Huang Yuxuan and Li Ziwei experience a profound connection through a shared dream, where they encounter a mysterious figure in the rain and enjoy music in a record shop. However, upon waking, they feel like strangers. Their fates intertwine in 2009 when Huang Yuxuan meets Li Ziwei, whom she recognizes from her dreams, at a beverage shop where she works part-time. Intrigued by Yuxuan, Ziwei feels an instant connection, and they quickly grow closer despite being strangers.

As their romance blossomed, Yuxuan recounts a childhood memory of getting lost in Tainan, where she was guided home by an older boy – who turns out to be Ziwei. This revelation deepens their bond, and they celebrate their love by spending New Year’s Eve together in 2010, eventually becoming a couple. By 2014, they take their relationship to the next level by moving in together, yet in 2017, Yuxuan is offered a job transfer to Shanghai, threatening their stability.

Faced with the heart-wrenching decision to part ways, Ziwei reassures Yuxuan that he will respect her choice. In a poignant moment in a Shanghai hotel, Yuxuan reflects on their chats, realizing that the last time she heard from Ziwei was in 2014. Grief-stricken, she learns that Ziwei tragically died in a fall on July 10, 2014, leading her to live in denial, as she pretended he was still alive.

The plot thickens when Yuxuan receives an anonymous package at her workplace, containing a Walkman and a cassette tape of Wu Bai’s album The End of Love. As she listens to "Last Dance," she unexpectedly finds herself inhabiting the body of another girl named Chen Yunru and realizes she has traveled back to July 8, 2014, just before Ziwei's fatal incident. Rushing to find him, she embraces Ziwei, who is puzzled by her sudden emotional outburst.

While in Yunru's body, Yuxuan attempts to explain her situation, claiming she is actually Yuxuan from 2017. However, Ziwei and Mo Junjie misunderstand her situation, believing that Yunru has simply changed drastically. Determined to save Ziwei, Yuxuan watches over him closely, but her distraction leads to disastrous consequences. As a chain of events unfolds, both she and Ziwei find themselves in a perilous situation on the rooftop of an abandoned building, leading to a tragic cycle.

Afterward, Yuxuan’s spirit returns to 2017, where she meets Mo Junjie and discovers another “Li Ziwei” who is actually Wang Quansheng, who has been inhabited by the spirit of Li Ziwei from 2017. Quansheng shares that their timelines diverge, revealing that in another alternate sequence of events, both Yuxuan and Yunru fell to their deaths. The story then follows the intertwining experiences of these characters across different timelines as they seek a way to save each other.

In 2017, together with Quansheng and Junjie, Yuxuan searches for Yunru, who is surprisingly still alive, only to uncover that she is married to Yang Hao, Yuxuan’s supervisor in Shanghai. After learning that Yunru is in a coma following a tragic miscarriage, Yuxuan discovers from Yang Hao about the potential of time travel through a special cassette tape. Regretting the twisted fates, they reveal that it was the tape that allowed Yunru to time travel back into Yuxuan’s life, setting off the events leading to the tragedies that are about to unfold.

Unbeknownst to Yuxuan, Yunru grapples with feelings of guilt and makes a tragic decision that will lead to a cycle of heartbreak. The narrative then shifts back to 2014, capturing the moment when both Yuxuan and Ziwei fall, culminating in their tragic end. In the aftermath of Yuxuan’s departure from existence, Yunru records everything in her diary in a bid to preserve their memories.

Years later, she encounters Quansheng, who is dealing with his personal struggles, leading to their bond and mutual support. In time, with Yunru’s encouragement, Quansheng decides to let go of the painful memories that the tape encapsulated. Together, they embark on a journey to destroy the very tape that caused their suffering.

After much emotional turmoil, Quansheng arranges a meet-up with Yunru at a record fair, where he apologizes for not fulfilling his promise to her. In a heartwarming moment, they listen to "Last Dance" together, which rekindles their shared memories.

Finally, Yuxuan awakens, pondering whether her experiences were nothing more than a vivid dream; upon turning and glimpsing Ziwei next to her, their entwined fingers reveal a reality filled with love. In a continuation of the story, events unfold in 2019, where Yuxuan and Ziwei plan to celebrate her birthday after a thoughtful video call from him, culminating in a surprise marriage proposal, embodying hope and a second chance.

Last updated: September 18, 2026 at 08:59

Was this helpful?

Plot questions answered

Someday or One Day Plot Explained: Your Questions Answered

The questions people ask most about Someday or One Day (2022): what happens in the confusing scenes, why the characters do what they do, the twists, hidden details and what the ending means. Each answer contains spoilers.

Q1

How does the cassette tape and Walkman allow time travel in Someday or One Day?

In Someday or One Day, the cassette tape of Wu Bai's album *The End of Love*, especially the track "Last Dance," acts as a supernatural trigger that transports the listener's consciousness back in time when played on a specific Walkman. When Huang Yuxuan listens to the tape, her soul is pulled into the past and placed into Chen Yunru's body on July 8, 2014. The mechanism operates on soul transfer rather than physical travel, which is why she wakes up as a different person rather than arriving as herself.

Foreshadowing: The recurring dream both characters share about a mysterious figure and music in a record shop during a rainstorm subtly hints at the cassette tape's role before it ever appears in the plot.

  • cassette tape time travel
  • walkman
  • last dance
  • wu bai
  • soul transfer
Q2

Why does Huang Yuxuan wake up in Chen Yunru's body instead of her own?

The time travel in Someday or One Day works through soul displacement rather than physical relocation, so Yuxuan's spirit cannot occupy her 2014 self because her younger body still exists and is alive. Instead, the cassette forces her soul into the nearest available vessel, which happens to be Yunru, a woman living two days before Ziwei's fatal fall. This mechanic is what makes her warnings sound incoherent to Ziwei and Mo Junjie, since she appears to them as Yunru behaving strangely rather than as the Yuxuan they recognize.

  • yuxuan yunru body swap
  • soul transfer
  • time travel mechanism
Q3

Who is Wang Quansheng and how is he connected to Li Ziwei?

Wang Quansheng is not a separate character but rather Wang Quansheng's body inhabited by the spirit of Li Ziwei from an alternate 2017 timeline. After Yuxuan returned to 2017 following her failed attempt to save Ziwei, she encounters another "Ziwei" living inside Quansheng, who explains that their fates branch across parallel realities. In one such timeline, both Yuxuan and Yunru fell from the abandoned building, and Ziwei's spirit migrated into Quansheng to continue existing and eventually help set things right.

  • wang quansheng
  • li ziwei spirit
  • alternate timeline
  • parallel reality
Q4

Why did Li Ziwei die on July 10, 2014?

Li Ziwei died after falling from the rooftop of an abandoned building on July 10, 2014, a date Yuxuan only realizes in hindsight after traveling back through the tape. In Someday or One Day, his death becomes the fixed anchor point that the entire time loop revolves around, and despite Yuxuan's desperate attempts to alter events, the fall keeps recurring across timelines. The tragedy is portrayed as both an accident and an inevitable consequence of the loop, since multiple versions of Yuxuan converge on that rooftop trying to save him.

Foreshadowing: Yuxuan's recurring nightmare about losing someone in a chaotic environment eerily mirrors the rooftop scene before she ever experiences it.

  • li ziwei death
  • july 10 2014
  • rooftop fall
  • abandoned building
Q5

Why did Huang Yuxuan pretend Li Ziwei was still alive for three years?

After Ziwei's death in 2014, Yuxuan's grief was so overwhelming that she entered a state of denial, continuing to chat with him as though nothing had happened and ignoring the gap in their messages. When she finally visits the Shanghai hotel in 2017 and re-reads their conversation, she discovers that his last message was sent in 2014, confirming he had been gone for three years. This delusion reflects her inability to accept the loss and foreshadows why she becomes so desperate to use the cassette tape to undo his death.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes show Yuxuan avoiding any reference to dates around July 2014, hinting at the trauma she is suppressing.

  • yuxuan denial
  • ziwei death grief
  • 2014 chat messages
  • three years
Q6

What is the significance of the recurring dream that Yuxuan and Ziwei share?

The shared dream about a mysterious figure in the rain and music in a record shop represents a psychic bridge between Yuxuan and Ziwei that exists outside their normal timeline. In Someday or One Day, the dream is treated as evidence that their souls are connected across lifetimes, predating even their 2009 meeting. It also foreshadows the cassette tape mechanism, since the record shop and music imagery directly echo the "Last Dance" tape that eventually enables time travel.

  • shared dream
  • recurring dream
  • record shop
  • rain
  • soul connection
Q7

Why couldn't Yuxuan save Ziwei even after traveling back in time?

Every time Yuxuan returns to 2014 through the tape and tries to intervene, she inadvertently pulls more characters onto the rooftop of the abandoned building, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Her desperate attempts to alter Ziwei's fate actually draw both of them, and eventually Yunru, into the exact circumstances that cause the fall. Someday or One Day frames the loop as inescapable precisely because her love-driven actions keep recreating the conditions of his death rather than preventing them.

Foreshadowing: Yuxuan's growing paranoia about losing Ziwei in the days leading up to July 10 hints that her urgency itself is part of what leads to the rooftop.

  • time loop
  • save ziwei
  • rooftop scene
  • fate
  • self-fulfilling prophecy
Q8

Why did Chen Yunru jump from the abandoned building?

Chen Yunru committed suicide at the abandoned building because she was consumed by guilt over being the vessel that allowed Yuxuan's soul to travel back, and she believed her existence was the trigger for the chain of tragedies. After learning that her inhabiting of Yuxuan's body in the original timeline led to Yuxuan's death, Yunru concluded that removing herself from the equation might break the loop. In Someday or One Day, her death paradoxically reinforces the cycle instead of ending it, which is what motivates Quansheng and Yunru in a later timeline to burn the tape instead.

  • yunru suicide
  • abandoned building
  • guilt
  • time loop cycle
Q9

What happened to Chen Yunru after the time travel events?

After the events of the loop, Chen Yunru ended up married to Yang Hao, Yuxuan's supervisor in Shanghai, and fell into a coma following a tragic miscarriage. In Someday or One Day, she remains alive but incapacitated in 2017, which is how Yuxuan discovers the diary that documents everything Yunru experienced while her body was used for time travel. Yunru's coma serves as the bridge between the 2014 disaster and the 2017 reveal, since it is Yang Hao who explains the cassette tape's power to Yuxuan.

  • yunru coma
  • miscarriage
  • yang hao
  • diary
  • shanghai
Q10

How does burning the cassette tape change the characters' fate?

In Someday or One Day, Quansheng and Yunru realize that the tape itself is the engine of the loop, so eliminating the physical object severs the supernatural chain binding the timelines together. By burning it at the seaside, they remove the mechanism that allows souls to travel back, which collapses the parallel tragedies and lets a single, untangled version of events move forward. Their act of letting go is what ultimately allows the 2019 scene, where Yuxuan wakes up beside the living Ziwei and receives a proposal, to exist.

  • burn cassette tape
  • seaside
  • break time loop
  • destroy tape
Q11

What is the meaning of Yuxuan's childhood memory of getting lost in Tainan?

The Tainan flashback reveals that Yuxuan and Ziwei's bond predates their 2009 meeting by many years, since the older boy who guided her home as a child was actually Ziwei himself. This confirmation transforms their relationship from a coincidental attraction into a destiny that has been quietly pulling them together across their entire lives. In Someday or One Day, it is one of the clearest pieces of evidence that their connection is not just romantic but fated, which is why Yuxuan instinctively recognizes Ziwei from her dreams the moment she sees him at the beverage shop.

  • tainan memory
  • childhood
  • getting lost
  • destined love
  • beverage shop
Q12

What role does Mo Junjie play across the different timelines?

Mo Junjie functions as a witness and sometimes catalyst in Someday or One Day, appearing alongside Ziwei in 2014 and later standing with Yuxuan and Quansheng in 2017. He is present when Yuxuan inhabits Yunru's body and mistakenly believes Yunru has simply changed, which is why her warnings about Ziwei's death are dismissed. In the 2017 timeline, Junjie becomes part of the group searching for Yunru and helps piece together what really happened, serving as a grounding observer who anchors the more supernatural events in a human perspective.

  • mo junjie
  • 2014 timeline
  • 2017 timeline
  • witness
Q13

How does the 2019 ending scene connect to the rest of the story?

The 2019 ending in Someday or One Day shows Yuxuan waking up beside a living Ziwei and receiving a surprise proposal on her birthday, which represents the one timeline where the loop has been successfully broken. Because Quansheng and Yunru destroyed the cassette tape, the soul transfers and rooftop tragedies no longer occur, and Yuxuan and Ziwei are allowed to grow together naturally. The intertwined fingers Yuxuan notices upon waking serve as confirmation that this version of reality is real and shared, not another dream.

  • 2019 ending
  • marriage proposal
  • birthday
  • loop broken
  • real reality
Q14

How do the multiple timelines in Someday or One Day connect to each other?

The film weaves together at least three major timelines, 2014, 2017, and 2019, that branch and intersect through the cassette tape's time-travel mechanic. The 2014 timeline is the origin point where Ziwei dies and Yunru inhabits Yuxuan's body, the 2017 timeline is where Yuxuan discovers the truth and meets Quansheng's version of Ziwei, and the 2019 timeline is the healed reality that exists only after the tape is destroyed. Characters like Quansheng, Junjie, and Yunru act as threads connecting these branches, since their memories and actions span multiple versions of events.

  • multiple timelines
  • 2014 2017 2019
  • parallel reality
  • branching timeline

Movie threads

More Movies Like Someday or One Day, by Mood & Story

Curated lists built around what makes Someday or One Day tick: the same mood, the same kind of story or the same emotional payoff. Each list explains why these movies belong together.

Time-crossed romance like in Someday or One Day

Stories where love defies time, death, and the very boundaries of reality itself. If you loved the time loop and soul transfer romance of Someday or One Day, discover similar movies where lovers are separated by timelines, parallel realities, or reincarnation. These sci-fi fantasy romance films weave fate, memory, and destiny into emotionally complex love stories that demand close attention and reward patient viewers with transcendent, hard-won connections.

  • time loop
  • reincarnation
  • soulmates
  • fate
  • transcendent
  • haunting
  • Tone: bittersweet, romantic, ethereal
  • Pacing: variable, with quiet reflection and urgent twists
Why these movies?

The story pattern: These stories usually unfold across at least two distinct timelines or identities, with characters waking up in unfamiliar bodies, eras, or versions of reality. A central mystery or accident triggers the loop, and each cycle peels back another layer of memory, regret, or revelation. Characters must piece together clues, confront versions of themselves or their beloved, and ultimately make a devastating choice. The narrative rewards viewers who track small details, because a stray detail in one timeline becomes the key to saving someone in another.

Why they belong together: They are grouped together because they share a core narrative device of reality-bending romance, whether through literal time travel, metaphysical soul migration, or dream logic. Each story treats love as something stronger than the laws of physics, and each one earns its emotional climax by making the audience feel the weight of every repeated goodbye. The dreamy, melancholic tone and complex non-linear structure create a consistent viewing experience that fans of the genre instinctively recognize.

Bittersweet love stories like in Someday or One Day

Romances where grief, fate, and impossible choices test the limits of devotion. If you loved the heavy emotional weight and bittersweet devotion of Someday or One Day, explore similar romance movies where fate, grief, and sacrifice stand between lovers. These romantic dramas pair devastating loss with hard-won happy endings, weaving memory, mortality, and enduring connection into stories that linger long after the credits roll for fans of tearful, cathartic love stories.

  • grief
  • devotion
  • fate
  • sacrifice
  • longing
  • wistful
  • Tone: bittersweet, melancholic, hopeful
  • Pacing: slow burn with urgent emotional spikes
Why these movies?

The story pattern: Stories in this thread typically begin with a couple already shaped by past trauma, a missing person, or a death that has not been fully mourned. The narrative forces them to relive, confront, or symbolically resolve that wound, often through reunion with a different version of their beloved or a second chance at a moment that was lost. The middle act is heavy with grief, suicide attempts, miscarriages, or near-misses, and the resolution only arrives after the characters accept an unbearable cost. The happy ending, when it comes, feels like a quiet gift rather than a foregone conclusion.

Why they belong together: They are grouped together for their shared emotional architecture: high romance scores, heavy sadness, low humor, and a willingness to put beloved characters through real suffering. Each film treats love as something that must be fought for across lifetimes, illnesses, or impossible circumstances, and each one balances tenderness with devastation. The tone stays wistful and emotionally heavy throughout, and the pacing alternates between intimate romantic beats and urgent, life-or-death stakes.

Every angle

Someday or One Day (2022) Explained: Plot, Timeline & Characters

Everything about Someday or One Day in one place: what happens in the plot summary, the timeline in chronological order, the characters and meaning and a spoiler-free summary. What's After the Movie adds the cast, box office and post-credit scenes.

Coming soon on iOS and Android

The Plot Explained Movie Summary App

Plot summaries, endings explained and timelines on your phone. Catch up on any movie in minutes, save your favorites and never miss a twist again.

Be the first to know when we launch. Your email stays private, always.

Learn more about the app