Director and writer Yang Li’s Escape From The 21st Century is a psychedelic comedy drama set in Planet K, a world similar to Earth but with only 12 hours a day. The film oscillates between two timelines—1999 and 2019. Time travel films tend to be loopy, and Yang Li takes it to another level with stylized visuals inspired by comic books, anime, and video games. With an overarching inspiring theme, the film is laced with nostalgia that follows a non-linear narrative, which is overall silly, funny, and definitely not meant to be taken seriously.
Escape From The 21st Century revolves around three best friends—Wang Zha, Wang Chengyong, and Paopao—and the narrative unfolds in the summer of 1999. The three high schoolers looked to the future with eager anticipation, determined to turn their dreams and ambitions into reality. But soon they discovered that they did not become the versions of themselves that they hoped to become in the future.
Spoiler Alert
What did the future have in store for Zha, Chengyong, and Paopao?
After falling into a lake polluted by toxic chemicals, Chengyong, Zha, and Paopao discovered that they could travel back and forth to 2019 with just a sneeze! Chengyong, the school heartthrob, hoped to live the life of a hero, but he was disappointed when he figured out that he was quite the villain in reality. He was involved in an organ trafficking racket, and his job entailed getting rid of potential threats. While his life didn’t turn out the way he wished for, he was hopeful that at least he was married to the love of his life, Yang Yi. But it soon became evident to him that he was no longer in contact with his childhood sweetheart. His life had turned into pretty much a tragedy, but he was hopeful that the changes in his past actions would reflect on his future life.
When Wang Zha woke up in 2019, he discovered that he was a photographer. He learned that he was on an assignment with journalist Liu Lianzhi, and their job was to gather evidence against an organ trafficking racket. Since it was Zha’s eighteen-year-old soul living in his thirty-eight-year-old body, he had no clue what he was expected to do at his job. He ended up taking photographs with his flash on, and the gangsters immediately figured out what was going on. Thankfully, Liu was a skilled fighter, and she managed to take down the gang all on her own. Zha instantly felt attracted to Liu, but he was hesitant about pursuing her after he learned that she had a boyfriend living abroad. When Liu was not credited for her investigative report, Zha ended up tearing the office apart just to teach their boss a lesson.
Paopao was initially impressed by his future version—he was a muscular man living with his childhood crush, nothing short of a dream! Paopao was in a relationship with Yang Yi. He couldn’t believe it at first, but he gradually figured out that Yang Yi chose him after Chengyong distanced himself from her. She always knew Paopao deeply cared about her, and she assumed choosing him was a safe option. While Paopao was at first elated about the way his life had turned out, he soon started to notice that Yang Yi was not really happy with him. She had simply settled for him when her relationship with Chenyong didn’t work out. And even if he tried, he couldn’t ever make her feel the way Chenyoung did.
Did Yang Yi and Chengyong end up together?
Paopao was initially in denial of the fact that Yang Yi was not really into him. His eighteen-year-old soul was filled with joy thinking about the possibility, but he gradually started to understand that just because things turned out the way he had always wished for, it didn’t really mean that he was happy. Yang Yi resorted to drugs after Chengyong left her. She was grappling with grief after she lost her father, and Chengyong’s decision to distance himself from her left her further depressed. She didn’t know how to deal with life anymore, so she gulped down pills to numb her pain. Chengyong was depressed with the way his life turned out. There was no denying that he was a terrible man who killed people on his boss’ command. Even if he wanted to leave behind his criminal life, he couldn’t. His father was in a persistent vegetative state, and the mounting hospital bills left him with no other choice. He’d also come to realize that he couldn’t alter future events, so no matter how hard he tried, he failed to save his father. Chengyong hoped to do better, but he didn’t know how.
To gain control of his life, Chengyong decided to reconnect with Yang Yi. He got into a fight with Paopao since he was not ready to accept that his girlfriend was still in love with her childhood lover. Seeing Chengyong’s desperation, Yang Yi demanded to know why he left her in the first place. Chengyong stated that he always knew his future would be messed up, so he didn’t wish for her to end up with him. He also admitted that he was afraid that she would have left him eventually. Both Yang Yi and Chengyong had come to accept that they could not live without each other. She wanted him to promise that he would go back in the past and try to be a better man so that they could be together forever. But Chengyong failed to live up to Yang Yi’s expectation. He never really changed, and they never met again. A few days after they’d confessed their love for each other, Yang Yi took a lethal dose of Glittertracs and killed herself. The summer of 1999 was the last time Yang Yi had truly felt alive.
Why did the boss want to destroy the world?
Chengyong’s boss, the leader of the illegal organ trafficking ring, was once a surgeon. One mistake and she was fired. Everyone around her voiced their hatred, but her son always told her that everything would be alright. Twenty years later, she was running a successful, albeit illegal and corrupt, business, so her son had chosen to distance himself from her. In a maddeningly desperate attempt to get her son to talk to her again, she had decided to work on a project. She believed that a toxic chemical that could roll back the human brain by twenty years could help her achieve her mission. She had conducted an experiment on Chengyong after he lost consciousness, and she had discovered a special component in his blood that could be used to achieve her goal, and she used it to produce a large quantity of serum. This possibly explains why we never got to see Chengyong’s thirty-eight-year-old self. That version had been destroyed or perhaps replaced completely, and it was only his eighteen-year-old version that remained. Chengyong was not the only one chosen for the experiment; his father was also subjected to the serum treatment, and his version from 1999 returned to his 2019 body. He was no longer in a persistent vegetative state, and even though Chengyong’s boss had already decided to kill her sample specimen, Chengyong was determined to protect his father. He tried his best, but his father eventually succumbed to the bullet wounds.
Chengyong, Zha, and Paopao were resolute about seeking revenge on the boss, but Liu Lianzhi reminded them of how ill-prepared they were. She stated that she’d hacked the boss’s phone and had come across an audio where she mentioned that her son was 27 years old, and after injecting him with the serum, she knew that his 7-year-old soul would take over his body. Her assistant, Han Guang, had warned her that the world would not be kind to him. The boss added that she planned on sending the whole world back 20 years so that her son would not be bullied or made to feel different. Her plan was to disperse the chemical (she called it ‘Chengyong 1’) in one week. This meant that the souls from 1999 would be transported to 2019, and as a result, the 1999 reality would be forever altered since the human souls would disappear and only their bodies would remain like empty shells. Her desperation for her son’s affection was about to completely distort everyone’s memories. The summer of 1999 was nostalgic and perhaps the most memorable time of their lives, and Chengyong, Zha, and Paopao refused to watch it being erased just to be forced to live in a world where they felt completely lost.
How did the boys overpower Han Guang?
The boys not only trained hard, but they also went back in time (1999) and took a vial of Glittertrancs, and the tiny vial holes helped them metabolize the toxins, which accelerated their muscle development, and over time, they became visibly stronger and more defined. Their punches had immense power, and they were ready to take down the boss and her gang. They arrived on the ship that was in the high sea where the chemical was being mass-produced. Chengyong, Zha, and Paopao had managed to take down all the mercenaries on the ship, and it was time for them to kill Han Guang. They were offered money to leave the ship, but they refused to budge. Han Guang warned them that if they refused, they would be held captive and their blood would be used to generate more serum. They thought it was impossible for Han Guang to take them down all on his own. But the three friends soon figured out that they had underestimated him. To win what seemed to be an impossible challenge, Zha went back in time with a sneeze and made sure that Han Guang didn’t get inspired by the Street Fighter II tape and instead developed a gaming addiction. They knew each other when they were young, and Han Guang was not the macho man he eventually became. It didn’t take Zha much effort to snatch the Street Fighter II tape from him, and he left Han Guang video game tapes and mangas. Since the past was altered, the future also drastically changed. Han Guang had gained weight as a result of his addiction, and he was no longer a threat to them. They took him down with ease, and all they had to worry about were the ravens with bombs attached to them. We learn that in 1945, when Country V ran out of fighter jets, they attached bombs to ravens, and their movement was controlled with special instruments. Though the instruments were not found, a scientist managed to crack the code and deduced that the ravens could be controlled with a game interface. Boss had gotten access to the gaming interface, and she used the ravens to partly disperse the serum. By the time they took down Han Guang, the ravens had done quite a bit of damage, and possibly over 20% of human shells were created in 1999 as a result of her experiment (their souls were transported to 2019). But even after the raven attack, Boss’s son didn’t receive her call.
What happened to Boss?
Towards Escape From The 21st Century’s ending, all that remained was Boss’ phone, and it suggests that after her son chose not to answer her calls, Boss decided to end her life. Since she was stranded on a ship in the middle of the sea; there’s possibly no other explanation for her disappearance. But before she gave up on her life, she chose to be the ultimate villain, and she released the secret behind the serum.
How did Chengyong, Zha, and Paopao save the world?
Chengyong, Zha, and Paopao dumped the barrels full of chemicals into the sea, and they also managed to redirect the ravens to the ship and put an end to the madness. Liu Lianzhi announced that the ship would sink in five minutes and they must quickly get on the lifeboat. Zha explained that since the boss had released the truth behind the formulation of the serum, they would always be hunted down for blood so that more serum could be produced. They believed that their death was the only way to make sure that the order of the world was not interrupted (except for the damage that had already occurred). They had decided to perish with the ship. Zha expressed that he didn’t have any regret, because he hated the adult world, and it was only Liu Lianzhi who made it bearable.
In Escape From The 21st Century’s ending Liu mentioned all the things from 1999 that she adored, and she begged Zha to find her. She didn’t wish to waste her life on anyone else, and she hoped they could be together at least in the past. After witnessing their death in 2019, their souls returned to 1999. They realized that they had limited time in hand, and since they couldn’t change fate, they had to live their lives to the fullest and make memories together. They had experienced the sorrow of their future, and they knew how fleeting every feeling was, so they chose to embrace the life that they were gifted and try to be better human beings in every way they possibly could.
