燃冬 (Ran Dong) is the original Chinese name of The Breaking Ice, a 2023 Chinese-Singaporean film directed by Anthony Chen and starring Zhou Dongyu, Liu Haoran, and Qiu Chuxiao. It literally translates to “burning winter.” 

To me, this translation encapsulates the film, which if I had to use one word to describe would be “unexpected.” 

My motivation to watch this film is unexpected in and of itself: I saw the trailer on YouTube and on the thumbnail are three attractive Asian people wrapped around each other in a tight embrace. Immediately, I was drawn in. It seemed like a very dramatic and thrilling Asian romance story; the scenes in the trailer of the three people dancing and looking sad emphasize this impression. 

I put the movie on my watchlist immediately but for a variety of reasons I did not get to watch it until months after. And even when I did get to watch it, I couldn’t finish it in one sitting and had to watch it multiple times. You might reasonably then ask, “Why are you writing about a film that you had to watch in multiple sittings to finish?” And it’s because the film left a lasting impression on me: it chose to be something totally different from what I expected. 

From the trailer and poster, The Breaking Ice seems like a very dramatic and scandalous movie, and at times it is, but it is also the complete opposite. This becomes apparent right at the start, as Haofeng, a finance bro from Shanghai and one of the film’s three protagonists, is at a friend’s wedding in Harbin, China. What is supposed to be a joyous and celebratory moment is instead quite a depressing one, as Haofeng stares sullenly at the couple and the people celebrating. One of the other guests at his table tries to cheer him up and get him to join everyone dancing, and he does so reluctantly. Haofeng’s behaviour and mood immediately show me that this movie is going to be depressing as hell, but it also sets up a mystery: why is he so sad and depressed at what is supposed to be a happy moment for him and his friends? 

This question is subsequently both answered and made more mysterious, as he leaves the venue to answer a call about missing a therapy appointment, to which he replies that they have called the wrong number. Haofeng then contemplates jumping off the balcony he is on. At this point, I wondered where exactly this story is headed. I knew it was going to be depressing before watching, but where’s the romance that the trailer promised? In a way, it is left behind when Haofeng leaves the wedding to go outside alone, and that could also likely be the end of his story. But this is an hour-and-a-half movie and a tour bus rolling up right under Haofeng prevents him from jumping to his death. 

Additionally, the tour guide on the bus catches his eye. It is the film’s female protagonist, Nana. She is essentially the thread that ties the characters together, and her character arc is also the one that I think is done the best out of the three protagonists. Her introduction to the story involves Haofeng attending one of the tours of Harbin she is guiding. I thought this was quite stalkerish but a lot of rom-coms are, so I tried to keep an open mind. 

During the day, Nana is a happy and enthusiastic tour guide—no, not really. This is the image she presents to Haofeng and others, and she can recognize Haofeng’s inner sadness because she herself has it too. Nana’s external positivity is a persona she holds up both for her occupation and to hide the trauma and pain caused by her past: she used to be a figure skater but ran away from her old life and loved ones after suffering a career-breaking injury. 

Nana is very jaded and cynical, and her relationship with Han Xiao, an employee and cook at one of the restaurants Nana brings Haofeng to after her tour ends, highlights this

underlying aspect of her personality. Xiao is the film’s third protagonist, and it is made obvious that he desires Nana’s romantic affection, inviting her to dinner and awkwardly denying that he wants to confess his love to her when questioned. 

With the introductions of all the main characters, I thought to myself, the love triangle is finally set up! Haofeng and Xiao are both romantically interested in Nana; Nana has known Xiao longer but appears to have more interest in Haofeng, the newcomer. Who will she choose?? 

The dinner scene begins hilariously awkward, as Nana invites Haofeng to her dinner with Xiao. What was supposed to be a one-on-one dinner between Nana and Xiao turns into a three-way staredown. Xiao is understandably caught off guard, but after getting to know Haofeng a little, he starts to like him, and the awkwardness is washed away with the help of food and alcohol. 

The unexpected resolution to this sequence of events is a pattern throughout the movie: the characters have a plan, and something goes wrong, but there’s a resolution where everything ends up alright. 

The Breaking Ice thus has a simple message about change. At its core, the film is about accepting change even if doing so hurts immensely – because what happens can’t be changed, but you can change how you respond to it. 

The film communicates this message through the lives of the three protagonists, who all have different dreams that they fail to achieve and who try to cope by never changing. 

Nana suffers an injury that ruins her figure skating career and gives up on it entirely in turn. 

After flunking out in school, Xiao comes to work in his aunt’s restaurant in Harbin but wants to leave and travel to find a way to succeed on his own. He never does so though because he is scared of leaving the security in his current life and potentially failing to succeed on his own. Xiao’s pursuit of Nana’s love is just an excuse to hide his fear; when he catches her and Haofeng sleeping together, he is unfazed, because he realizes that he does not really love her in that way. 

And Haofeng’s failure in life is – ironically – his inability to end it. All his attempts to commit suicide fail because of his friends. Haofeng’s continuous failure to end his life communicates that he doesn’t really want to die, but more importantly, that when something doesn’t work or succeed, you can’t be stubborn – you have to attempt something different. Life can be very difficult and require hard sacrifices, but it can also reveal things that your original plan cannot. 

Their adventure to see Heaven Lake, a gigantic lake in a volcanic crater, embodies this unexpected success produced by diverting from the plan. The three of them drive to an off-road trail and, after hours of hiking, are finally almost at the lake – when Nana receives a call from a mountain ranger on her walkie-talkie that there is a blizzard coming to their location and they need to head back immediately. 

Haofeng is very disappointed, as the trip was his, and he probably thought that seeing the vast lake in person would help stop his suicidal ideations. Unable to reach the lake, he tells his companions that he needs to go pee and heads off into the woods, stopping before a cliff where he plans to jump off. 

This is quite a turn of events from what I expected: a beautiful shot of the three characters against the backdrop of the lake, displaying humanity’s insignificance against the incomprehensible vastness of nature as they tearfully embrace. 

Instead, I got a CGI bear, which is more than enough to compensate. 

Nana yelling his name draws Haofeng back from his death to the main trail, and he runs back to find a bear looming before his two friends. The bear approaches closer and Nana, like a Disney princess, reaches out her hand to the bear’s head. The bear receives her touch and then walks away. 

This interaction may seem very unrealistic – and it is – but the film foreshadows it a lot with bear motifs in previous scenes and a story Haofeng tells on the way to the lake. Ignoring how the bear did not bite Nana’s hand off, this scene does achieve the inspiration of nature that Haofeng desired, just in an unexpected form for both the characters and the audience. Even though the characters technically fail in their goal, I wouldn’t say that their trip was a failure; its success just came in an unexpected, ursine form. 

I won’t spoil the ending of the film, but based on what I have discussed, you can make a guess on whether there’s a happy ending for the characters. To be honest, I don’t really know myself, as the ending is quite vague, but I will say that it is on the optimistic side. 

Even though the plot consistently surprised me with the direction it chose, I always felt a reassurance that the characters would end up okay. The film consistently communicates that people should not be scared by the unexpected but instead embrace and adapt to it. That is the “burning winter” in the film for me, a desire that’s been covered underneath and melts away the coldness. 

There’s a phrase Haofeng repeats throughout the film like a mantra: “Find somewhere, close your eyes, and then…” 

He doesn’t finish what he is going to say. It’s up to you to decide where to go.