Crossing a Dawn

After a wryly ironic meet-cute in a supermarket, attractive and capricious Xu Qiu (Sandra Ma) spends an unexpected night on the town with handsome and seemingly naïve Yu Zhou (Edward Chen). The ensuing odyssey of urban misadventures allows them to let down their guard, revealing sundry truths about their views on life, love, and each other. Experienced screenwriter Zhao Badou makes his feature directorial debut with this charming and introspective rom-com, whose clever script astutely reflects the Chinese millennial psyche. Riffing on Before Sunrise but set across a bewitching night in Beijing, a nuanced character in its own right, it melds ingenious metatextuality, cinematic sleight of hand and emotional honesty into a film as lively and delightful as the euphoria of sudden infatuation.