Drop it high
Qiao Xi is a “sunny girl” with a dual nature; beneath her bright exterior lies coldness and a desire for control. Her “obedient girl” façade conceals a dark inner world.
Zhou Zhou, once a playboy, is now trapped inside a doll, his soul unable to break free. His fate symbolizes a cycle of cause and effect—those who toy with others ultimately become the ones being toyed with, a complete reversal of power roles.
Whether this tragedy is intentional on Qiao Xi’s part is irrelevant. What is unsettling is how the male dominant identity is quietly stripped away amid the indifferent laughter of women, reduced to a silent “plaything.” This is both a reversal of gender power dynamics and a profound critique of human control and emotional numbness.
Qiao Xi and Mei Ling’s everyday interactions are casual and lighthearted but conceal cruelty: a living soul is destroyed by unconscious indifference. Mei Ling is not a villain; her self-centeredness and lack of empathy reflect the emotional coldness common among today’s youth. This “unintentional evil” is more dangerous than deliberate harm.
The film wraps a youth’s exterior around a fatal cycle: in this game of control and being controlled, who is the player, and who is the prisoner? Perhaps each of us is caught within it.
