Many films have been made that drew their inspiration and aesthetics from video games, manga and anime, but few as successfully, as exciting and as exhilarating as “Escape from the 21st Century”. Li Yang’s madcap sci-fi adventure is a visual feast boasting excellent visual effects despite its low budget, a convincing mix of live footage and 2D animation and a rousing spectacle that can only honor its many inspirations.
Buy This Title
by clicking on the image below
It is almost impossible to describe the story while doing justice to the film’s nonsensical sense of fun. On distant planet K (but for all intents and purposes, Earth) in 1999, a trio of teenagers are exposed to a toxic chemical that gives them the ability to travel through time to the year 2019 and back… by simply sneezing. In the future, they inhabit the bodies of their future selves and are soon confronted by the challenges, surprises and disappointments that their adult doubles represent. They also find themselves embroiled in a somber story involving an attempted assassination on a journalist and pitted against a powerful enemy who has played Street Fighter 2 one too many times.
Perhaps the best way of describing the film, however, is by mentioning its major inspirations. If you thought that no film could be as whimsical, mystifying and intoxicating as “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, you need to think again, as “Escape from the 21st Century” gives the Michelle Yeoh vehicle a thrilling run for its money. Li Yang’s film may not be as accomplished, and is certainly not as deep and touching, but it comes very close to reproducing the same kind of what-the-hell-am-I-watching fun that has made “Everything Everywhere” so memorable. It also borrows from that film the differing aspect ratios that characterize the era the action is situated in, one of many ways the movie has of visually acknowledging its inspiration.
Check also this video
Its comic book aesthetic and video game spirit will also inevitably recall among many viewers the wonderful “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”, although the end result is also very different from that earlier film. “Escape” only borrows the best from its inspirations and builds its own universe and its own style in what feels like an authentic, heartfelt love letter to science fiction, gaming and comics of all national origins. Both films also center on a male teen that is literally fighting his way to his girlfriend, although one could certainly argue that “Escape” has so many narrative centers it is always on the verge of breaking up and imploding. Its sheer kinetic energy, however, always saves it and carries to its final scene unscathed, a compelling miracle in its own right.
Li Yang made his big screen debut in 2011 as the co-director (with “The Wandering Earth”‘s Frant Gwo) of “Lee’s Adventure”, a film which already dealt with video games and time travel and mixed live-action footage with animation. In retrospect, that movie feels like a trial run for “Escape”, which on the contrary has the look and the weight of a movie that was long in the making. The film’s sheer visual complexity, elaborate CGIs and complex camera movement imply extensive work, which shows and shines on almost every frame (only occasionally do scenes become visually unintelligible, including fight scenes which are on the whole very convincing).
The film makes also great use of a rousing pop soundtrack. That includes Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding out for a Hero”, which accompanies what is perhaps the most exciting sequence in the film. Said passage includes a motorbike and foot chase in an urban environment full of explosions, collapsing buildings and a crashing airplane that recalls many Kowloon-set Hong Kong films (while intercut with an epic “Dragon Ball”-like fight). Another stirring scene has Joan Baez and Ennio Morricone’s “Here’s to You” play above a fight scene and heroic escape from an office building reminiscent of “Everything Everywhere” (as well as, somehow, “The Matrix”).
“Escape from the 21st Century” is also the typical coming-of-age drama that suits so well time travel yarns. Not everything on that score works so well, with some plot and character elements that sometimes show too clearly how cliché they are. However, the film does have its tender and touching moments of wistful longing for the lost days of adolescence and staying true to the dreams and aspirations one had before entering the adult world. The actors all serve the story and the action very well, including Zhang Ruoyun, Yang Song and Elaine Zhong in lead roles, along with the scene-chewing Wu Xiaoliang, who makes for a perfect villain.
All this makes the failure of the film at the Chinese box office (it was released in August 2024) all the more incomprehensible and disappointing. Li Yang is clearly a filmmaker with an immense potential, and he needs to be given the means to achieve it. In the meantime, “Escape from the 21st Century” should absolutely not be missed.
