European Festival Premiere | In Competition
China, 2025, 133’, Mandarin
Directed by: Lu Yang
Screenplay: Li Zelin, based on the short story A Writer Odyssey by Shuang Xuetao
Cinematographer (color): Chao Ming
Art Director: Li Miao
Music: Qian Lei
Producer: Wang Juan
Executive Producer: Wang Hongwei
Literature Consultant: Shuang Xuetao
Production Companies: Huace Pictures, Shanghai Maoyan Pictures, Free Whale Pictures
Cast: Deng Chao (Redmane), Dong Zijian (Lu Kongwen), Lei Jiayin (Guan Ning), Chen Chang (Jiutian), Xin Zhilei (Cloudborne), Wang Shengdi (Tangerine), Ding Zhenxin (Xing Zhe)
Date of First Release in Territory: October 1st, 2025
Director Lu Yang rose to prominence thanks to two blockbusters:
Brotherhood of Blades (FEFF 2014) and
Brotherhood of Blades 2 (FEFF 2017), followed by another major critical and commercial success,
A Writer’s Odyssey (2021), about Kongwen, the author of a fantasy novel in which a young hero going by the same name as the author seeks to defeat the forces of evil embodied by the tyrant Lord Redmane. In that story, the boundary between reality and imagination is surprisingly permeable, suggesting that literary creation could influence the real world.
Four years later, Lu Yang continues the saga of this literary odyssey, based on the popular books by Shang Xuetao, with a film that fits perfectly into the contemporary cultural climate of the metaverse and meta-genre, in which different levels of reality and fiction end up overlapping. The film once again revolves around Kongwen, a young writer who finds himself, against his will, transformed into a sort of “keyboard warrior,” engaged in fighting on two distinct yet interconnected fronts.
In the real world, Kongwen is dealing with a personal injustice: the rights to his novel have been stolen by Cicada, a skilled impostor who has published the work as his own and, thanks to this fraud, has become a celebrity. Determined to expose him and reclaim his identity as an author, Kongwen plots revenge. However, Cicada continues to manipulate him, even going so far as to convince him to jointly write the sequel to the novel, giving rise to an ambiguous relationship marked by rivalry, dependence, and mutual distrust.
At the same time, in the fantasy world which gushes forth from his imagination, Kongwen finds himself facing a new battle against the tyrant Redmane. In this epic dimension, he is joined by his adoptive father Guang Ning and his sister Tangerine. Redmane, endowed with magical hair capable of enveloping and devouring his enemies, represents an increasingly powerful and symbolic threat, an embodiment of the dark forces that endanger the balance between the two universes.
Blending drama, black comedy, fantasy, and animation, the film confirms Lu Yang’s stylistic eclecticism and his ability to integrate different narrative registers into a coherent and spectacular vision; a philosophical reflection on the process of literary creation and the role of imagination also emerges. The protagonist is forced to confront his own doubts and fears, which take on a concrete form in a space-time dimension suspended between reality and fantasy.
Kongwen’s journey, from insecurity and pessimism to the rediscovery of confidence and his own creative voice, partly reflects the anxieties of a generation of young Chinese people grappling with an uncertain and rapidly changing present. At the same time, the film reflects the audience’s growing familiarity with metaverse culture and with immersive forms of storytelling in which author and reader meet within shared virtual worlds. The influence of video game aesthetics and imagery is also evident in the action sequences and in the depiction of fantastical landscapes.
Starring some of the most renowned actors in China today – Dong Zijian, Deng Chao, and Lei Jiayin – the film is a big budget production. The shoot involved numerous soundstages and a vast creative team; more than 1,300 technicians and artists were employed just for the creation of the special effects. Lei Jiayin himself recalled with irony how the director had initially promised him a role without action scenes, only to later involve him in demanding acrobatic sequences with armour and suspension rigs. To reassure the actors, Lu Yang personally tried out the same routines himself before filming.
The result is a film that, embracing both “real” reality and virtual reality, constructs a visual universe with a distinctly Chinese aesthetic and philosophical sensibility.
Lu Yang
Lu Yang (b. 1979), is a director, screenwriter, and producer. He graduated with a degree in engineering and subsequently earned a degree in directing from the Beijing Film Academy (2008). His career began by writing short films and television series for Phoenix Television. His two films in the Brotherhood of Blades series garnered widespread critical and box-office acclaim. In 2020, he co-directed the war film The Sacrifice, and in 2021 he released the fantasy adventure action film A Writer’s Odyssey, both of which grossed over 1 billion RMB at the box office.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2012 – My Spectacular Theatre
2012 – A Motor Home Adventure
2014 – Brotherhood of Blades
2017 – Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield
2020 – Sacrifice
2021 – A Writer’s Odyssey
2025 – A Writer’s Odyssey 2