‘Escape from the 21st Century’ is a unique time travel narrative in which a group of teens need to save the future.
Adolescents often wonder where they will end up in the future. What will they look like? Will they be successful? Will they still be with their high school sweetheart? Will they stay in touch with the friends they currently couldn’t live without? There’s a lot of unknowns, but it’s likely whatever choices you make when you’re younger will impact your future trajectory. However, if one could travel ahead in time, would they like what they see? In Escape from the 21st Century, a trio of teenagers gain the ability to travel to the future for short periods of time.
Cheng Yong Wang (Zhuozhao Li), Zha Wang (Yichen Chen) and Pao Pao (Qixuan Kang) are lifelong best friends. The high schoolers spend most of their waking hours together, banning together to defend Cheng Yong Wang’s girlfriend, Yi Yang (Fanding Ma), whenever necessary. However, their latest battle doesn’t go their way and they end up swimming in a lake filling with an unknown chemical. Afterward, the next time one of them sneezes, they’re transported into their body 20 years in the future. As if that isn’t confusing enough, there’s a corporation conducting experiments to try to harness their abilities and deliver it to the entire population — unless they can use the past to change the future.
The teenage kids are typical ne’er-do-wells that don’t look like they’ll accomplish much without change. Their adult selves are proof as Cheng Yong Wang (Yang Song) is a criminal, Zha Wang (Ruoyun Zhang) is a low-level photographer supporting a hard-hitting journalist Liu Lianzhi (Elane Zhong) and Pao Pao (Chenhao Li) is living a dream that could destroy their friendship. Realizing he’s no longer with Yi Yang (Yanmanzi Zhu), Cheng Yong Wang obsesses with finding her, resulting in trips back and forth through time as he tries to find clues to her whereabouts. However, his search is eventually superseded by the need to stop the world’s destruction. Unfortunately, their bodies may be mature, but their brains are stunted so they’ll need to convince Liu Lianzhi to help them come up with a plan.
Writer-director Yang Li notes he based the film on his teenage self who was similarly carefree and concerned with stupid things. Thus, there’s a youthful energy to the film that uses skillfully placed animation effects throughout to embellish particular events and over-the-top action that sends characters flying through the air as if they’d just received a blow in a video game. The time travel narrative shouldn’t be overthought as it follows its own rules, particularly as the teenagers occupy their adult selves. However, it is fun watching them scramble to induce a sneeze to escape bad situations.
Escape from the 21st Century had its international premiere in the Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Director: Yang Li
Starring: Ruoyun Zhang, Elane Zhong and Yang Song
