Brief Story Line
Story was set in the future where space travels were quite common and a lot of missions were done towards distant planets which would take many years to reach. During these travels, the crew were put in deep sleep but were able to live and control their dreams using technology called LM developed by Sweet Dreams Corporation. During a long mission on Mengya interstellar ship, a coder from Sweet Dreams named Xu Tianbao (Dylan Wang - Light to the Night TV series, I Dreamed a Dream etc) had awakened from his sleep earlier and later saw an explosion on certain part of the ship.
To resolve the issue, Tianbao decided to wake ship's captain Li Simeng (Victoria Song - My New Sassy Girl, Fight For Love TV series etc) by going inside her dream. However it was not an easy task as he had to do so within specified time. Things got more complicated as the ship was going off course and endanger the whole crew.
So what was the reason for explosion on Mengya ship and what would happen to all the passengers? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I said above, the reason why I wanted to give this a try was due to its premise. Space travels were kind of fun for me with lots of Hollywood movies and series that I watched since I was a kid. However Asian countries nowadays were able to make space adventure films that were not pale in comparison to those from the US. And this movie was one of them with pretty awesome special effects of the space ship and all related to it. Although not all of them were extraordinary (few still quite visible as computer generated), but in general they looked amazing to me. Combined with the AI element made this movie a nice mix of sci-fi.
The performance of Dylan Wang was also a joy to see. He was quite perfect portraying a playful character (as he did wonderfully other times before), and frankly his mischief was what made this movie fun (the way he annoyed his captain was funny at times). The second & following efforts of going into dreams were hilarious too. But my admiration to Dylan was enhanced as he still managed to show seriousness at the right moment. Now obviously the film's strength was on the visual effects which I got to say was quite stunning, supported by a rather complex plot though not extraordinarily difficult to understand for me. And that dream entrance during final third was truly awesome showing us the chaotic but fascinating imagination of the film makers and the brilliance of the special effects team. However there was one thing that truly bothered me as I thought it did not make sense which was the original reason/purpose of one of the characters. I believed it was rather contradictive and could not be achieved by doing so. Luckily subsequent story development was more exciting and suspenseful that I was able to disregard that part, though not entirely.
Aside from the two cast above, the movie only had 3 more support characters, i.e. Chief Engineer Mr. Bai (Zu Feng - 1921, The Mask TV series etc), software safety engineer Ge Yang (Wang Duo - The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity, The Immortal Ascension TV series etc) and Captan Li's mother (Luo Haiqiong - The Dream of the Red Chamber, The Kite TV series etc). The film itself was directed by Han Yan (Viva La Vida, Animal World etc) based on original story by Qian Ninghuang. It has a duration of 111 minutes with a quite long and interesting mid end credit scene. Looking at the countless special effects, I think the movie would be having a very high production budget (I do not have the complete info yet), but sadly the Box Office performance was probably not sufficient to cover. The movie was released in China during 2026 Chinese New Year together with 5 others and unfortunately it was the least performing. So it's a good thing that Netflix acquired its distribution right and hopefully it would be better received by international audience.
Overall this is a film that I enjoyed due to its plot, visual effects and Dylan Wang's performance plus having a satisfying conclusion. It even had a surprising twist before the end. Although it's not overly complex, but the rather specific sci-fi elements and adventures in dreams & space might be better suited for fans of such genre. I can understand that it might be too much of a challenge for general audience who prefer lighter story and perhaps felt the movie a bit confusing. So if you are like me, I think you would feel this as a fine addition to the space & sci-fi genre especially if you want to experience seeing other than those made in Hollywood. But if you prefer a simpler space adventure story, then this might not be to your liking. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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