''Our Shining Days'' ( zh, c=闪光少女, p=Shǎnguāng Shàonǚ, l=Shining Girl) is a 2017 Chinese

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

film starring

Xu Lu Xu Lu (, born 28 December 1994), also known as Lulu Xu, is a Chinese actress and singer. She first became recognized in China for her role in the drama ''Empresses in the Palace'' (2012) and internationally with the drama '' One and a Half Sum ...

and

Peng Yuchang Peng Yuchang (, born October 25, 1994) is a Chinese actor and singer. He gained recognition after appearing in '' Our Shining Days'' (2017) and Hu Bo's award-winning film ''An Elephant Sitting Still'' (2018). He also starred in the films '' Go B ...

. The film received favorable reviews, particularly for the performance of lead actress Xu Lu and the depiction of

minority group The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

's struggles of

Chinese orchestra The term Chinese orchestra is most commonly used to refer to the modern Chinese orchestra that is found in China and various overseas Chinese communities. This modern Chinese orchestra first developed out of Jiangnan sizhu ensemble in the 1920s ...

and

Otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, such as anime, manga, video games, computers or other highly enthusiastic hobbies. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. ...

Synopsis

In a fictitious music school, the students of

and Classical orchestra don't get along with each other. They call each other "''tacky''" and "''pretentious''". Chen Jing, a quirky but talented

yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed to ...

student, initially doesn't care about the rivalry, until she falls for the piano prodigy Wang Wen. Annoyed at his ignorance and prejudice toward Chinese instruments, she is determined to prove herself to him by forming her own ensemble, which consists of her best friend who secretly loves her Li You and four ''

'' girls whom initially only agreed to join because of Chen Jing's promise to buy them expensive

action figure An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These figures are usually ...

s. They named their

concert band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind instrument, woodwind, brass ...

"''2.5 Dimension''", meaning a blend between 2D and 3D worlds, as the Otaku people refer to themselves as living in the second dimension. They perform at an Animation, Comics, and Games convention, and after initial rejection the crowd cheers for them. They perform for Wang Wen but he publicly rejects Chen Jing and traditional Chinese music. Crushed, Chen Jing chooses to disband 2.5 Dimension. The four Otaku students, who have grown to love the band, are angry and refuse Chen Jing's gift of expensive anime figurines. Chen Jing's mother tells her about how the yangqin is a part of her and that she can't give up playing it without its permission. The head of the school announces plans to take in no new students and thus phase out the Chinese Orchestra program. But the original members of 2.5 Dimension are joined by other students to protest. After the head of the school continues to refuse them, they organize a music competition with the Classical Orchestra. An inspector comes to the school and as both orchestras play their music, the Chinese orchestra matches well with the Classical students. The inspector leaves very impressed. Meeting outside, the competition is declared a tie, earning mutual respect. The Chinese orchestra then enlists the help of the Classical orchestra to sneak in and unofficially play after the other performers at a public youth concert, which is being broadcast live. They are met with high praise. The movie ends by showing the arrival of freshmen, including a number keen to learn in the reprieved Chinese orchestra.

Casting

as Chen Jing, student from the music school's Chinese Music Area who plays the

Yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed to ...

as Li You, percussionist playing Chinese drums *Liu Yongxi as Xiao Mai, plays the

Guzheng The zheng (), or guzheng (), is a Chinese List of Chinese musical instruments#Plucked, plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a Major scale, major pentatonic scale. It has a large, reson ...

*Li Nuo as Ying Zi, plays the

Erhu The (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, that is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-stringed fiddle''. It is used as a solo instrument as ...

*Lu Zhaohua as Beibei, plays the Ruan *Han Zhongyu as Tata, plays the

Pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rangi ...

*Luo Mingjie as Wang Wen, plays classical piano *Chen Yusi as Zheng Youen *

Eason Chan Eason Chan Yick-shun ( zh, s=陈奕迅, t=陳奕迅, first=t, p=Chén Yìxùn; born 27 July 1974) is a Hong Kong singer and actor. He is one of the most popular and influential singers in both Cantopop and Mandopop. Besides holding the record ...

as Ministry of Education's official * Yan Ni as Mrs. Chen *Geng Le as Mr. Chen

Reception

''Our Shining Days'' garnered generally-positive response. Edmund Lee of ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

'' rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, describing it as "slight but entertaining" while highlighting the film's "youthful spirit".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 7013194 *
Our Shining Days
' at

Douban Douban.com (), launched on 6 March 2005, is a Chinese online database and social networking service that allows registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, recent events, and activities in Chinese ci ...

2017 films 2017 drama films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s musical drama films 2010s teen drama films Chinese coming-of-age drama films Chinese musical drama films Chinese teen films Chinese-language films Films set in China Tencent Pictures films 2017 musical films