Review | Better Days film review: Zhou Dongyu is riveting in Derek Tsang’s deeply poignant bullying drama

Jackson Yee stars opposite Zhou Dongyu in a heart-wrenching drama that examines the effects of bullying

Directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung, it has been a big box office hit in mainland China

Reading Time:2 minutes

Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee in a still from Better Days (category: IIB; Mandarin), directed by Derek Tsang.

Published: 5:24pm, 4 Dec 2019Updated: 5:50pm, 4 Dec 2019

4.5/5 stars

Had Better Days been released in any other year, the film would have served as a far bigger endorsement of the talent of its director, the emerging Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung.

Still, good movies will always find their mark.

With China’s censors more cautious than usual in the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic, the film’s producers were forced to withdraw it from the Berlin film festival in February, and fell foul of a Chinese boycott of the Golden Horse awards in Taiwan last month. (Tsang’s previous film, Soul Mate , was nominated in seven categories at the Golden Horse awards in 2016.)

The film was thus starved of international attention. When it was belatedly released in mainland China, it proved a big hit at the box office.

Zhou Dongyu, who stars in Better Days, won the Golden Horse best actress prize for Soul Mate. Had she been in the running this year, it’s easy to see why she might have been tipped for the award again thanks to her heart-wrenching performance here.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x