Director: Rao Zihao | Yu Guanqiao

Synopsis

In a jungle of steel lives an office worker whose life is dull and repetitive. He leaves early and comes home late every day, and the endless pressure of work and the monotony of life gradually plunge him into nihilistic confusion. For him, every day is a Sisyphean torment that seems to have no meaning. Amid the endlessly repeated days, the man decides to end it all by taking his own life. He climbs to the top of a tall building and, facing the city at night, is filled with despair. At the moment of decision, he jumps without hesitation. Yet when he wakes up, he finds himself back at the start of the same day. Incredibly, he seems to have returned to the state of that morning, with everything back as it was at the beginning. The man is confused and afraid and does not know what has happened. He tries to escape the loop, but every time he decides again to end his life, he returns to the same starting point. Through the repetitions, the man gradually understands that he is trapped in an endless loop, and that his feelings about life and his decisions no longer count, as if he were bound by fate. He begins to doubt reality and to doubt whether he can still truly choose freely. When he stands at the edge of the building again, he suddenly sees another version of himself in the distance, walking toward him with a resolute gaze. This other self looks exactly like him, but carries a different kind of firmness and resolve. The moment the two selves come face to face, the man suddenly realizes that he himself is the key to his fate. They gaze at each other as if looking into the mysteries of the whole universe. The other self smiles at him, then turns and jumps.