Edit: I later found out the novel this movie was based on is suspected of plagiarizing Keigo Hinashino's two novels "Journey Under the Midnight Sun" and "The Devotion of Suspect X". I've never read the two books so I'm not sure how similar the movie is to the two books.

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A bitter-sweet story about bullying at school. Story follows Nian Chen, a high school student preparing for her biggest exam so she could ultimately escape to the big city Beijing with her mum. We experience with Nian her struggles as she tries to survive her harsh school life being the bully's next targeted victim. Without help from any adults, Nian finds an unexpected friendship with a local gangster Xiaobei.

I found most characters and settings written quite realistically. While I might not be able to resonate with the actions of the characters, I was able to understand their motives and action (there are exceptions, especially the actions of the bully). Some events in the movie seemed too good to be true, and I would suspect this could be due to the movie seemingly being a promoting material for the newish anti-bullying laws in China (I.e. pre-credits), or complying to media laws in China. Sadly, the story went downhill in the second half, losing its focus from everything the first half of the movie tried to set up. The resolution seemed forced to me, with some actions of characters (especially the bully) not making sense. There were also characters that play important roles but were not explored properly.

All in all a good-looking movie with great acting and cinematography but lacking on the story side.