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Someday or One Day (2022) movie poster

Characters & Themes

Someday or One Day (2022) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Release, runtime and language
2022 · 107 mins · Chinese
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.

Mystery Romance Fantasy Cast, crew & box office
On this page (7)
  1. 1 Where to watch
  2. 2 Characters explained (5)
  3. 3 Where & when it takes place
  4. 4 Themes & meaning (3)
  5. 5 Character & meaning questions
  6. 6 Movie threads
  7. 7 Every angle

Where to watch

Where to Watch Someday or One Day (2022)

Where can you watch Someday or One Day? Stream, rent or buy it in the US, including on Rakuten Viki: current JustWatch availability with up-to-date prices.

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5 main characters · contains spoilers

Someday or One Day Characters Explained: Who Is Who

The main characters of Someday or One Day (2022), heroes and villains: what drives them, how they change over the course of the story and what each of them reveals about the film's bigger ideas.

  • Huang Yuxuan

    played by Ko Chia-Yen

    Yuxuan is a complex character whose emotional journey takes center stage in the narrative. Initially burdened by grief and loss, her quest to rewrite the past demonstrates her determination and resilience. Throughout the film, she evolves from a passive sufferer to an active seeker of change, embodying the themes of love and fate.

    • 👩‍❤️‍👨 Love
    • 🕰️ Time Traveler
    • 😢 Grief

  • Li Ziwei

    played by Greg Hsu

    Ziwei is portrayed as Yuxuan's love interest, whose tragic fate drives much of the plot. He is charming and deeply connected to Yuxuan, emerging as a symbol of lost potential and unrealized dreams. His character captivates the audience with his warmth and the gravity of his ultimate sacrifice, highlighting the poignant aspects of love and loss.

    • 💔 Tragedy
    • 💖 Love
    • 🏆 Sacrifice

  • Chen Yunru

    played by Chia-Hui Chang

    Yunru serves as a vital bridge between timelines, embodying the intersection of Yuxuan's past and future. With her shy, timid nature, her character's experiences add depth to the narrative, illustrating the impact of choices on one's life. Yunru's journey speaks to the essence of empathy and personal connection across timelines.

    • 🌸 Timid
    • 🌌 Connection
    • 🌀 Complexity

  • Mo Junjie

    played by Patrick Shih

    Junjie is depicted as a supportive friend to Yuxuan, whose presence adds complexity to the emotional landscape of the story. He serves as a grounding character amidst the convoluted timeline, providing a mix of comic relief and poignant moments. His interactions reflect the enduring nature of friendship in the face of adversity.

    • 🤝 Friendship
    • 😄 Support
    • 🎶 Music

  • Wang Quansheng

    played by Greg Hsu

    Quansheng represents a parallel journey to that of Yuxuan, discovering his connection to the narrative through a different lens. His character encapsulates themes of identity, acceptance, and the bittersweet nature of love. Navigating his own heartbreak, Quansheng's arc highlights the importance of resilience and making peace with the past.

    • 🌈 Identity
    • 🥀 Heartbreak
    • 🔥 Resilience

Last updated: September 09, 2026 at 04:41

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Setting

Where and When Does Someday or One Day Take Place?

The setting of Someday or One Day (2022): the year and time period, the places and locations, and how they shape the characters, the mood and the tension of the story.

Time period

2009-2019

The film traverses a decade, showcasing the evolving relationship between Yuxuan and Ziwei from their initial meeting in 2009 to their engagement in 2019. This period captures significant changes in technology and social dynamics, reflecting personal growth and the recurring theme of time. It highlights the complexities of love, loss, and the search for second chances in life.

Location

Tainan, Shanghai, Taiwan

The story takes place in Tainan, a city known for its rich history and cultural heritage, where Huang Yuxuan recalls a significant childhood memory. Shanghai serves as a backdrop for Yuxuan's emotional turmoil and pivotal moments, symbolizing growth and separation. Taiwan, where key events unfold, represents the characters' roots and their heartfelt journeys.

  • 🏙️ City
  • 📍 Location
  • 🏠 Home

Last updated: September 09, 2026 at 04:41

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3 major themes

Someday or One Day Meaning: Themes & Message Explained

What is Someday or One Day (2022) really about? The emotional, social and philosophical themes the film keeps returning to, its symbolism and the message beneath the surface.

  • Time Travel

    Time travel is a central theme, illustrated through Yuxuan's journey as she navigates past events to alter the fate of her loved ones. The narrative explores the impact of choices and the inevitability of certain outcomes. It offers a poignant look at how the past shapes the present and the lengths one will go to change destiny.

  • Love and Loss

    The depth of love and the pain of loss resonate throughout the film, as characters grapple with their emotions tied to those they have lost. Yuxuan's quest to save Ziwei demonstrates the profound connection they share, even across timelines. Ultimately, the story delves into the complexities of love and the acceptance of loss.

  • Fate

    Fate plays a crucial role in the characters' journeys, emphasizing the idea that some events are predetermined. The intertwining timelines reveal that despite their efforts to alter the past, certain outcomes remain unavoidable. This theme evokes a sense of both hope and resignation, as characters confront their destinies.

Last updated: September 09, 2026 at 04:41

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Character & theme questions

Someday or One Day Characters & Meaning: Your Questions Answered

The questions people ask about Someday or One Day (2022): who the characters really are, their relationships, what the symbols mean, where it takes place and what the movie is really about. Each answer contains spoilers.

Q1

Where does the story take place?

Someday or One Day is primarily set in Taiwan, with key scenes unfolding across Tainan and Shanghai. Tainan carries strong cultural and historical weight, while Shanghai represents emotional upheaval and separation. The shifting locations between these cities mirror the characters' inner journeys and the story's broader exploration of memory across time.

  • tainan
  • shanghai
  • taiwan
  • setting
  • locations
Q2

Why are Tainan and Shanghai both used as settings?

Tainan and Shanghai represent two opposing emotional poles in Someday or One Day. Tainan stands for roots, memory, and a sense of home, while Shanghai embodies separation, growth, and emotional distance. Moving between the two cities reflects the characters' changing lives and the unresolved feelings they carry across years.

  • tainan
  • shanghai
  • meaning
  • contrast
  • symbolism
Q3

What time period does the story span?

Someday or One Day covers roughly a decade, beginning in 2009 when the two leads first meet and extending to 2019. Within that span, the narrative revisits several key years, including 2014 and 2017, layering different timelines on top of each other. The passage of time is essential, since shifts in technology, social dynamics, and personal growth all shape the characters' choices.

  • 2009
  • 2019
  • decade
  • timeline
  • era
Q4

What are the main themes of the film?

Someday or One Day weaves together three core themes: time travel, love and loss, and fate. Time travel drives the mechanics of the story, love and loss give it its emotional weight, and fate ties the two together by suggesting that some outcomes cannot be avoided. Together, these themes give the romance its bittersweet, philosophical edge.

  • time travel
  • love
  • loss
  • fate
  • themes
Q5

How does fate shape the characters' journeys?

In Someday or One Day, fate is treated as a force that the characters push against but cannot fully escape. Even when they try to alter events by reaching across timelines, certain outcomes remain stubbornly in place. This creates a tone of bittersweet resignation, where hope and inevitability coexist and every choice feels both urgent and doomed.

  • fate
  • destiny
  • inevitability
  • choices
  • outcome
Q6

How does time travel work in the film?

Time travel in Someday or One Day is tied to specific narrative devices rather than conventional machines, including cassette tapes and soul transfers between bodies. Characters do not simply jump between years; they relive moments through other people's perspectives across parallel realities. This unconventional approach lets the film treat time travel as a way to explore identity, memory, and connection rather than just chronology.

  • time travel
  • cassette tape
  • soul transfer
  • parallel realities
Q7

Why is love and loss so central to the story?

Love and loss in Someday or One Day function as the emotional engine behind the characters' choices. The film repeatedly frames affection as something that must be weighed against sacrifice, where connection across timelines carries an undeniable cost. This tension is what gives the romance its bittersweet, reflective tone.

  • love
  • loss
  • grief
  • romance
  • sacrifice
Q8

Who is Huang Yuxuan?

Huang Yuxuan (played by Ko Chia-Yen) is the emotional center of Someday or One Day. She begins the story weighed down by grief and gradually transforms into someone willing to challenge the past in order to protect the people she loves. Her arc embodies the film's core themes of love, fate, and resilience.

  • huang yuxuan
  • ko chia-yen
  • protagonist
  • grief
  • resilience
Q9

Who is Li Ziwei?

Li Ziwei (played by Greg Hsu) is Yuxuan's love interest and a figure whose presence anchors the story's emotional stakes. He is portrayed as warm and charming, and his fate becomes a driving force behind the choices Yuxuan makes. He represents both the possibility of love and the weight of loss that defines the film.

  • li ziwei
  • greg hsu
  • love interest
  • warmth
Q10

Who is Wang Quansheng?

Wang Quansheng (also played by Greg Hsu) follows a parallel journey to Yuxuan, seeing the story from a different emotional angle. His arc focuses on identity, acceptance, and coming to terms with heartbreak. His presence allows Someday or One Day to examine the same themes through a second lens.

  • wang quansheng
  • identity
  • heartbreak
  • acceptance
Q11

Who is Chen Yunru?

Chen Yunru (played by Chia-Hui Chang) acts as a bridge between timelines and between characters in Someday or One Day. Her quiet, empathetic nature adds emotional depth and highlights how small choices ripple across lives. She serves as a connective thread that ties different eras of the story together.

  • chen yunru
  • chia-hui chang
  • bridge
  • empathy
  • timelines
Q12

Who is Mo Junjie?

Mo Junjie (played by Patrick Shih) is a supportive friend to Yuxuan who provides grounding amid the film's complex timeline. He brings moments of lightness and warmth that balance the heavier emotional beats. His friendship underscores how enduring relationships help characters survive the story's toughest moments.

  • mo junjie
  • patrick shih
  • friendship
  • support

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.

Someday or One Day movie poster

Someday or One Day

2022
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1000
Everything Everywhere All at Once movie poster

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Midnight's Children movie poster

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2013
The Samurai and the Prisoner movie poster

The Samurai and the Prisoner

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Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time movie poster

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

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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.

Someday or One Day movie poster

Someday or One Day

2022
Everything, Everywhere movie poster

Everything, Everywhere

2023
Everything Everywhere All at Once movie poster

Everything Everywhere All at Once

2022

Every angle

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

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