Once A Time With You 2015 Movie Review

『A Heartwarming Coming-of-Age Story of Two Women’s Courageous Love and Self-Discovery』

🎥 Film Overview

🎬 Title: Once A Time With You (彼时曾相伴, 2015)
🌍 Country: 🇨🇳 China
🎞️ Genre: Drama / Romance / Short Film
📢 Director: Zhu Xuhe (朱姝河)
📺 Platform: Short film festivals and online short film platforms

👩‍💼 Cast: Zhou Yunru (周韵茹) – Suqian (Su Chen)
Wang Zuo (王佐) – Liulu (Liu Lu)

🧩 In-Depth Story Analysis (Spoilers)

📚 Dual Taboos and Overcoming Trauma

The core of the film lies at the intersection of two taboos.

• Institutional taboo (teacher and student): The relationship between Liu Lu and Suqian violates the hierarchical roles of teacher and student, introducing professional risk and ethical pressure on Liu Lu.

• Social taboo (same-sex romance): Liu Lu carries past trauma and pain from her high school same-sex experiences. The fact that she has been living as a disguised heterosexual indicates that same-sex attraction is both her personal truth and a painful past she wishes to avoid revisiting.

Suqian’s active courtship acts as a powerful catalyst, forcing Liu Lu to confront both taboos and face her past trauma.

🩵 Love as a Vehicle for Self-Growth

Liu Lu’s journey is not just a romance, but a process of learning the courage to live authentically.

• Imprisoned by the past: Liu Lu has hidden her true feelings (same-sex attraction) and lived a disguised life due to past wounds. Her life has been confined by trauma.

• Suqian’s salvation: With her strong literary sensibility, Suqian becomes a conduit to Liu Lu’s inner truth. Through their sincere connection, Liu Lu gains the courage to recognize that her feelings are not fleeting emotions but her hidden authentic self. Choosing love represents liberation from trauma and the recovery of her true identity, marking her personal growth.

🌟 Autonomous Youth and an Oppressive Older Generation

🌿 Suqian: The Knowledgeable, Autonomous Youth

Suqian is not simply a 'student in love.' With her literary insight, she perceives Liu Lu’s inner pain and truth, approaching her own feelings with honesty and proactive agency. Suqian’s courage functions as an external light breaking through Liu Lu’s societal oppression and walls of disguise.

❄️ Liu Lu: The Delicate Boundary Between Suppression and Liberation

Liu Lu is the film’s most emotionally complex axis. Her hesitation and distance stem from painful memories and reflect responsibility as a teacher and fear of social prejudice. The film delicately portrays her struggle between the 'safe choice' of living as a heterosexual and the 'authentic life' offered by Suqian, eliciting audience empathy.

✒️ Directorial Features and Social Critique

Despite being a graduate thesis project, director Zhu Xuhe demonstrates remarkably mature direction.

• Subtle psychological portrayal: Overcoming the limitations of a short film, it effectively conveys Liu Lu’s internal conflict and Suqian’s sincerity through eye contact, subtle touches, and silence.

• Realistic trials: Through rumors within the school and social prejudice, the film shows that their relationship must endure realistic and sharp challenges, rather than remaining a romantic fantasy. This reflects the actual pressures faced by queer relationships in Taiwanese (or greater Chinese) society.

《Once A Time With You》 successfully condenses a weighty theme of dual taboos, trauma, and liberation into its short runtime. The love between the two women ultimately signifies the courage to choose personal truth over societal gaze and holds important value as a queer narrative.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥
⭐ Overall Rating: ★★★