Better Days (film)

After her classmate, Hu Xiaodie, commits suicide because of school bullying, Chen Nian finds herself the new victim of vicious school bully Weilai and her friends. Chen Nian also sees a teenage boy, Liu Beishan, being beaten in the streets. She attempts to call the police but is seen and attacked as well. The attackers mock her trying to save Beishan and beat both of them until they finally get Chen Nian to kiss Beishan.

Meanwhile, Chen Nian’s bullies continue to grow fiercer, physically attacking Chen Nian and spreading rumors about her family. After one encounter, where Chen Nian tries to stand up to the bullies, she is brutally pushed down the stairs in front of many other students at school.

Police detectives investigate Hu Xiaodie’s death, and while interviewing Weilai, make it known that Chen Nian has reported being bullied by Weilai. Weilai and her friends are all suspended from school and have an even stronger vendetta against Chen Nian. Throughout this time, Chen Nian continues to go to school and prepare for the college entrance exam; however, she gets cornered on her way home from school by the 3 expelled bullies who chase her with box cutters and a cage of rats. Having nowhere else to go, Chen Nian goes to Liu Beishan’s house and asks him to protect her while she continues studying for and eventually takes the college entrance exam. He agrees and follows her to and from school each day. During this time, Chen Nian and Beishan spend lot of time together and become very close. Chen Nian starts to show concern for Beishan, and he opens up about his past.

Beishan is picked to be in a line up and gets stuck at the police station nearly all night. Without his protection, Chen Nian is caught by the bullies who cut her hair, beat and strip her, all the while filming her. When Beishan is finally allowed to leave the police station, he runs home to see a bleeding Chen Nian on the floor taping her assignments together with her clothes in tatters and her hair cut. He helps her shave her head and then shaves his too.

The exam draws near and Chen Nian returns to school. On the day of the exam there is heavy rain that causes a landslide. In clearing out the landslide, they discover a body. The body is later found to be Weilai. After the first day of the two-day college entrance exam, the police bring Chen Nian in for questioning as the main suspect for Weilai’s murder. The detectives ask her why she didn’t come to them after the video of her was filmed and she states that she didn’t want anything to affect her studying. She simply wanted to take the exam and move away to Beijing for college.

Chen Nian is escorted by the police to return and finish the exam the next day. On her way home, Beishan grabs her and they run. He explains that the only way for her to continue with her life and go to college is if he takes the blame for Weilai’s death by saying he assaulted her and accidentally killed her in the process. When Chen Nian reluctantly agrees, he acts like he is assaulting her and the police catch him.

There is a flash back to a scene of Weilai begging Chen Nian to not report the video event to the police. Weilai offers Chen Nian anything that she could ask for, so long as Chen Nian keeps quiet. Chen Nian tells her that if she never has to see Weilai again then she will stay quiet. Weilai continues to pester and follow Chen Nian until Chen Nian pushes her in anger. Weilai falls down several flights of stairs, hitting her head and dying. In the present, Chen Nian and BeiShan both interrogated but stick to the story that the only time they had met was when Beishan attacked Chen Nian.

After Chen Nian gets her score back for the college entrance exam, one of the detectives comes to her house and tells her that Beishan had lied about being a minor and had been sentenced to death. Distraught, Chen Nian admits to her part in the crime. The detective then reveals that he was lying to her to get her to admit to the crime because the sentence would be lighter for both of them. The detective then takes her to see Beishan and they agree to take the lighter sentences, and both go to jail.

A final scene taking place a few years later shows Chen Nian as a teacher who notices a child who looks distressed. Chen Nian approaches the girl and they walk home together, followed closely by Beishan. Before the credits roll there are a few screens explaining the policies that the PRC has enacted since the event to prevent bullying in schools and deal stricter punishment to school bullies. There is a final plea for everyone to be aware and take responsibility for children and their safety.

Better Days is adapted from Jiu Yuexi's novel In His Youth, In Her Beauty (少年的你，如此美丽; the novel was also translated as Young and Beautiful by some sources).[6][7]

Production started in July 2018 and ended on September 10, 2018.[8] Most of the film was shot on location in Chongqing.[9]

Better Days was released on October 25, 2019, in China. It was released by Well Go USA Entertainment in Mandarin with English subtitles in selected theaters in the United States and Canada.[10]

The film was pulled from the Berlin festival's Generation section.[11][12][13]

• List of submissions to the 93rd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
• List of Hong Kong submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

• Better Days on IMDb
• Better Days at Douban (in Chinese)
• Better Days (film) at the Mtime.com (in Chinese)