Us and Them (2018) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

The film takes place in Beijing, China, a sprawling megacity where ambition collides with everyday struggle. Key locations include crowded trains during the Chunyun travel season, a tiny room within a Beijing residential complex, and the city's vibrant restaurant scene.

• beijing
• china
• setting
• location
• chunyun
• urban

Chunyun refers to the Spring Festival travel rush in China, the world's largest annual migration when millions travel home for Chinese New Year. The film uses this chaotic period as its backdrop, capturing the emotions of reunion, longing, and transient connections that define the characters' meeting.

• chunyun
• spring festival
• chinese new year
• travel rush
• chinese holiday

The contrasting visual styles represent how memories work, warm, colorful moments from the hopeful past stand in stark contrast to the present, which feels more hollow and reflective. This dual-timeline structure shows how past choices and memories continue to shape present decisions.

• visual style
• color
• black and white
• timelines
• memories
• past present

Us and Them explores whether love is destiny or a series of deliberate choices shaped by circumstance. The film suggests that while a chance meeting on a train can ignite a powerful connection, time and growing apart can strain that bond, leaving viewers to question whether love is written in the stars or built through choice.

• love
• fate
• destiny
• relationship
• choice
• connection

The dual timeline demonstrates how memories influence present decisions, wealth, status, and maturity alter relationships over time, yet memories keep the original connection alive. The past shows the couple's hopeful beginning, while the present reveals how those memories both haunt and comfort them.

• time
• memory
• past
• present
• relationships
• growth

The story tests authenticity against social expectations, career success, family duty, and appearances all pressure the characters. Through the father's illness and the couple's diverging paths, the film probes what it means to stay true to oneself and to each other amid competing obligations.

• identity
• authenticity
• expectations
• career
• family duty
• appearance

Lin Jianqing is a Beijing-based game designer chasing success and innovation while dealing with financial pressures and a volatile temperament. His ambition and pride push him toward maintaining appearances, which strains his relationship with Xiaoxiao as they grow apart.

• lin jianqing
• game designer
• ambition
• career
• beijing
• protagonist

Fang Xiaoxiao is the woman who enters Jianqing's life and later leaves due to personal and family tensions. She values genuine connection over wealth and remains emotionally tied to their shared history, even as their life paths diverge.

• fang xiaoxiao
• love interest
• connection
• values
• emotional

Jianqing's father is a restaurant owner whose declining health, from growing blindness to eventual death, weighs heavily on the couple. His final letter and lingering memories act as catalysts for introspection, revealing a longing for care and belonging that shapes both characters' journeys.

• father
• restaurant owner
• illness
• death
• letter
• catalyst
• family

The ending is bittersweet, the characters acknowledge their love but accept they must walk separate paths. They find reconciliation through art (the game Jianqing creates) rather than reuniting, offering a poignant sense of closure without a traditional happy or tragic conclusion.

• ending
• conclusion
• bittersweet
• reconciliation
• art
• closure

The fast pace of urban life and tech-driven culture in Beijing directly influence the characters' choices and opportunities. The city's competitive environment fuels Jianqing's ambition, while the cramped living spaces and anonymous transit of the megacity mirror the transient yet intense nature of the characters' connection.

• beijing
• urban
• city life
• ambition
• tech
• modern china
• megacity