28 minutes to destroy your feelings about first love and the end of the world.
In 2012, Tan Xiao Bei, an art student who had been studying for two years, met Hu Miao Miao, who was also a "fifth high school student". The two had different personalities, but they accompanied each other under the great pressure of exams and decided to go to the end of the world together. Having survived that "catastrophic catastrophe," the strange thing is that they became estranged from each other after that day. The two met again after many years, but they were no longer the same people as they were back then. (Sources: MyDramaList)
Acting
Qiu Tian's restrained devastation hits like a delayed grenade.
Writing
The apocalypse as metaphor for endings we can't process.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'fifth high school student' (复读生) refers to China's gaokao repeaters—students who failed college entrance exams and spend an extra year cramming, carrying intense social stigma. This context transforms the apocalypse into a metaphor for exam pressure that literally feels world-ending.
The 28-minute runtime mirrors how brief intense adolescent connections feel in retrospect—long enough to rewire you, short enough to doubt it ever mattered. Director reportedly shot this as thesis project with actual gaokao survivors.
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