By doudou6 
The film tells the story of a bond between a man and a woman from a small town that lasts for decades. Xu Yi and Gao Xiaonan, both from the small town, met in their childhood due to a misunderstanding. However, Gao Xiaonan transferred schools midway, and Xu Yi completely lost contact with her. It wasn’t until university that they accidentally reunited on campus and established a deeper connection, leading to years of mutual companionship. They experienced the phases of going from adversaries to close friends, from students to working professionals, being more than friends but not quite lovers. As time goes by, their relationship faces new tests and challenges: should they maintain the status quo or break through this barrier and take a step forward?
The film tells such a simple story that it cannot be simpler. It points to a classic emotional issue: is there pure friendship between men and women? Romance films have always been difficult to shoot; they can easily slip into melodrama or falsity. One of the strengths of “Our Love Looks Like Love” is its authenticity. The screenplay was written by Liu Tong. Many scenes in the film are adapted from his personal experiences: the protagonist attended university in Hunan and interned at Hunan TV after graduation. Therefore, in the film, we can see many familiar landmarks and street scenes of Changsha.
During the two-month filming period, the crew shot at 66 locations in Changsha. These include well-known city landmarks such as Changsha Railway Station, Huangxing Square, Orange Isle Bridge, IFS International Finance Center, Xiangjiang Middle Road, Beichen Delta, as well as distinctive spots like Yuewang Pavilion Road, Wenyuan Building, the track field, and Peach Lake Smoke Street at Hunan Normal University. Filming at these familiar landmarks and scenes allowed the actors to quickly get into character while making the entire film’s visuals full of natural life vibes. In the film, Shen Yue makes a cameo appearance as a real estate agent with her distinctive Hunan accent, further bringing Changsha’s city image to life vividly and concretely. The “authenticity” of these scenes provides convincing soil for the story’s occurrence and conditions for emotional “authenticity” to grow.
Xu Yi and Gao Xiaonan’s emotional mode does not follow conventional routes. Among them, Xu Yi is the more proactive one but he is definitely not a stereotypical sycophant. Initially, he felt guilty towards Gao Xiaonan because of a box of liquor chocolates from their childhood. After reuniting in college, he wanted to make amends on one hand while also feeling affection for her on the other hand; thus he took extra care and concern for Gao Xiaonan. When he realized there was no chance with Gao Xiaonan romantically speaking though he could turn back towards his own life goals pursuing new relationships instead.
Gao Xiaonan has always been pure-heartedly independent emotionally speaking; losing both parents shaped her character making her need security more than other girls typically would do so when faced with Xu Yi’s kindness initially she adopted defensive stance only lowering guard once confirming sincerity behind intentions shown yet despite family background never lowered standards regarding intimacy requirements when seeing retreating behavior questioned clearly asking what exactly current status meant why couldn’t act braver.
This relationship wasn’t synchronized; when one party acted courageously proactively another still testing waters self-protecting whilst fully opening up previously retreated feeling unworthy stemming career developments differently timed turning points happened year graduated deciding hometown development persuading stay giving hard-earned job opportunity subsequently career trajectories swapped becoming increasingly successful repeatedly encountering setbacks respectively graduation season job-seeking resonating topics events contrasting rapidly developing straightforward couple exposing thoroughly emotional issues faced protagonists.
