With ample funding and impeccable special effects—particularly the breathtaking long take of the space elevator, paired with the visceral impact of “Space Elevator”—this film fulfilled the dream of a megastructure enthusiast like me.
The themes are manifold, and I can’t quite pinpoint the central one. Perhaps it’s unity? The speech by Old Man Zhou struck a deep chord, and his resemblance to Premier Zhou Enlai is uncanny—so very uncanny.
We’ve never disliked patriotic narratives; what we dislike is hollow preaching and the forced feeding of so-called “positive energy.”
The countdowns at key moments and the concept of digital life carry strong echoes of Interstellar and Asimov’s Foundation.
The lyrics from the theme song Humans Are_—“Farewell, my moonlight, my blue, my love. The steel behemoths roar, as we refuse to go gentle into the night”—clearly reflect the influence of Interstellar on this work.
The first half of the line comes from Old Man Zhou’s dialogue in The Wandering Earth 2, while “the night” references Dylan Thomas’s poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, famously quoted in Interstellar. The “steel behemoths” likely symbolize the planetary engines, emblems of human technology and Earth’s hope for survival.
It’s fair to say this film fully meets the caliber of Interstellar.
Even more delightful is the second end-credit song, Flowing Water, whose folk style feels utterly “out of place” in a sci-fi setting, yet ignites a humanistic warmth in the cold vastness of space. This is something rarely achieved in Liu Cixin’s grand sci-fi universe, highlighting the distinct artistic strengths of literature versus film.
I lingered until the very last note of Flowing Water faded, leaving the theater as the final viewer, my mind echoing with the refrain: “Like flowing water, rushing la-la-la-la-la…”
— GuZheng
January 27, 2023
When will I have a drink and discuss the details again?