Three girls, one dying wish, and a beat-up car racing toward sunrise.
The Highway Love Story tells the story of a young lady Ziqing, who was abandoned by her ex-boyfriend because of her sudden illness. Ziqing was experiencing the downhills but she dreamt about witnessing the sunrise by seaside. To realise Ziqing's wish and to cheer her up, Jainfei and Nian, Ziqing's good friends, bought a secondhand car and the three girls went on a trip, where things happened...
Acting
Shi Hui's tomboy Nian simmers with restrained longing.
Writing
Subtext so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Director
Wang Zi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of China's underground 'Girls' Love' wave circa 2015-2018, distributed through fan networks before streaming normalization. Wang Zi directed on a shoestring budget typical of the era's queer indie scene.
The lupus diagnosis mirrors how queer desire itself was treated as invisible illness in contemporary Chinese cinema — present, debilitating, and rarely named aloud.
CN
