Film Name: 昨日青空 / Crystal Sky of Yesterday
As the theme song “Crystal Sky of Yesterday” played while the protagonist rode away on the train, my eyes welled up. This was a train bound for dreams, bound for an unknown future—yet it carried them away from the most beautiful chapter of youth, away from friends whose memories would remain etched in their hearts forever.
The protagonists, Tu Xiaoyi and Yao Zhetian, once lingered at a railroad crossing. Could they have imagined that this very train would one day mark the moment their paths diverged forever? Thus, the train roars on, a silent witness to it all.
When the closing credits rolled with the words, “Where are you now? Are you well? I miss you,” I could barely hold back my tears. Though not everyone was born in Lanxi, each of us has journeyed through our own youth. Beneath the same clear skies dotted with white clouds, we all sweated on that simple yet wonderfully luxurious concrete court. And in our hearts, we each held a tower that gazed toward the horizon.
Where are you now, my friends? The more beautiful the imagery, the more it mirrors an irretrievable dream within the heart, and the more poignant it becomes. Sometimes I dare not look at Tu Xiaoyi’s innocent gaze, yet I cannot resist watching Qi Jingxuan’s eyes as he stares at the speeding planes from the tower—as if he were seeing hope itself.
The film’s greatest achievement lies in its use of evocative colors and music to create a space where audiences can reflect on and resonate with their own youth. What story the film actually tells becomes less important. It brims with profound melancholy, where themes of parting and longing far outweigh the naive romance.
The film doesn’t truly devote much effort to depicting love, yet it disguises that longing within the guise of romance—this is why the movie feels slightly jarring. If you’re going to seriously write about love, you need to portray two characters with distinct personalities, not people as ordinary as you and me, as depicted in the film. To truly write about love, you must depict how this love brings growth and change to both individuals, and even how it transforms the people around them. Yet the love in “Crystal Sky of Yesterday” not only fails to change the two families, but doesn’t even truly change the two people themselves.
I like the character Qi Jingxuan because he’s just so cool when he first appears, and the scene where he cooks for his mother living alone in the countryside is even cooler. Yesterday’s blue skies weren’t just filled with these children, but also their parents and families. Qi Jingxuan is undoubtedly the most fully realized character among them. Pocket Chocolate’s manga is far too biased in its focus on Qi Jingxuan, leaving us unaware of the unique stories within the protagonists’ own families. These are precisely the elements the film should have filled in.
The greatest regret of this work is its 80-minute adaptation of the Pocket Chocolate picture book, which feels like a mere “rip-off.” Why does Tu Xiaoyi love drawing so much? Why does Yao Zhetian study ballet? What heartache lies behind Peanut’s cheerful facade? What we truly want to see is the “Yesterday’s Blue Sky” behind Yesterday’s Blue Sky. Under that blue sky, each character felt more fully realized—driven by life’s motivations, grappling with dilemmas. These shared struggles fueled their mutual support during growth, deepened the sincerity of their friendship, and ultimately built the most poignant emotional tension for their eventual parting.
Thus, when Tu Xiaoyi returns to the house of his childhood, we feel no profound sense of homecoming. Even when he steps onto the soil of Lanxi once more, we don’t feel the expected sense of ceremony.
But regardless, that profound sense of parting sorrow is enough. Just like those seemingly tangential freeze-frames of flowers, grass, falling leaves, and sunsets in the film, they freeze our thoughts too. “Crystal Sky of Yesterday” truly makes us remember something lost, and that is enough.
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