So Young (film)

Zheng Wei started college as a civil engineering major to be in the same city as her childhood playmate, Lin Jing, whom she was determined to marry one day. When Wei visited Jing at his dormitory, however, she was told that Jing left for America. Unable to understand why Jing left so abruptly, Wei was left confused and heartbroken. Back in her own dormitory, Wei became close friends with her three roommates: Ruan Guan, the most beautiful and popular girl in the class; Li Weijuan, a realistic girl who came from a poor town but was determined to marry well; and Zhu Xiaobei, a tomboy. The four girls talked about their goals in life and all cheered to Ruan Guan's ambition—to have a youth that never fades away.

Wei was befriended by architecture majors Lao Zhang and his roommate Xu Kaiyang. Kaiyang came from a well-to-do family and pursued Wei romantically, but Wei only regarded him as a friend. One evening Wei went to Lao Zhang and Kaiyang's dorm room to borrow a DVD. Wei was disgusted by the messy condition of the male dorm room, except for one bed that was neat and clean, which Lao Zhang said the bed belonged to their roommate Chen Xiaozheng. Wei saw a building model on the table and fumbled with the parts. At this moment Xiaozheng came into the room and demanded out loud what was Wei doing. Startled, Wei knocked the model off the table. Xiaozheng managed to save his model by shoving Wei out of the way onto the floor.

Enraged in humiliation, Wei angrily demanded an apology from Xiaozheng, but Xiaozheng stoically replied that he had nothing to apologize for and that it was her fault for touching his model. From that moment, Wei was determined to repeatedly humiliate and pester Xiaozheng until she gets her apology. Through her repeated harassments, Wei came to realize that she liked Xiaozheng. From Lao Zhang and Weijuan, Wei learned that Xiaozheng came from a poor family and was raised by a strict mother which cultivated his reserved and disciplined personality. Wei declared her interest in Xiaozheng, and then relentlessly stalked Xiaozheng to get his attention, much to his annoyance. Eventually, Xiaozheng found himself to like Wei too, and the two started dating.

During the rest of their college life and relationship, Xiaozheng and Wei found that they had starkly contrasting personalities. Although he appreciated Wei's enthusiastic personality, Xiaozheng also reprimanded Wei at times for her laid-back and undisciplined attitude towards her coursework. Wei asked Xiaozheng why he always had to be so serious about everything. Xiaozheng replied, "My life is like a building that can only be built once, so I cannot afford any margin of error, not even a centimeter of deviance." Due to his family's modest financial circumstances, Xiaozheng believed that he needed to do everything he could to ensure the best possible professional future for himself.

Eventually graduation came upon Wei and Xiaozheng. At the on-campus job fair, Wei hoped she and Xiaozheng would work at the same company and thus remained together. Unbeknownst to Wei, Xiaozheng had applied to and obtained a graduate fellowship to study architecture in America. When Wei eventually learned of his plan from her roommates, she confronted Xiaozheng to ask why she was the last one to know. Xiaozheng explained that he could not tell her because he was afraid of hurting her and reiterated that he could not make any mistake in his life, so he had to make the difficult choice to leave her to make a better future for himself.

A few years later, Wei became a mature professional who excelled in her work, much different from her bygone youthful days. One day she suddenly encountered Lin Jing. Jing explained that he left abruptly back then because he learned that his father was having an affair with Wei's mother, so he could not face Wei. He never went to America, but avoided contact with Wei. The one time when he saw Wei on her college campus was when she was happy with Xiaozheng. Now, however, he wanted to come back and rekindle their friendship and romance. At the same time, Xiaozheng also returned from America as an accomplished architect. Though he had everything professionally that he was determined to achieve, Xiaozheng found his life hollow. He deeply regretted he choice to let Wei go, realizing that his time with her was the only time he could be his true self, and thus he also wanted to rekindle their relationship. However, Wei on their first meeting firmly rejects Xiaocheng. Not long afterward, Ruan Guan was killed in a car accident when trying to meet her university boyfriend one last time before she was to marry another man. Wei, in grief, asked Lin Jing to marry her. However, she later called it off when Lin Jing told Wei about another girl who was in love with him during their time apart. Afterwards, Xiaocheng and Wei met once more at the aquarium, where they spent happy times right before Xiaozheng had to leave for America, to reminisce. There Xiaozheng asked Wei, "I would like to start over, would you let me love you again?" Wei replied, "Xiaozheng, we spent our youth together, we owe each other nothing... youth is something you can only relive in memory." implying they could never go back to who they were hence rekindling the romance would be unlikely.

• Yang Zishan as Zheng Wei
• Mark Chao as Chen Xiaozheng
• Han Geng as Lin Jing
• Jiang Shuying as Ruan Guan
• Bao Bei'er as Zhang
• Zheng Kai as Xu Kaiyang
• Zhang Yao as Li Weijuan
• Tong Liya as Shi Jie
• Cya Liu as Zhu Xiaobei
• Wang Jiajia as Zeng Shu
• Huang Ming as Zhao Shiyong
• Pan Hong as Chen's mother
• Yang Lan as Yang Lan
• Han Hong as DJ Zi Juan
• Wang Sen as Wang Yaming

Xin Yiwu, author of the novel, has mentioned that Zhao Wei was actually her choice to play the lead character of "Zheng Wei". However, Zhao declined the offer, and opted to direct the film.^[3]

Besides Mark Chao and Han Geng, a majority of the cast are newcomers, including Yang Zishan, who played the story's protagonist Zheng Wei.^[4] Zhao stated, "They're very green and new. Sometimes they even lack common sense. But I like working with them because they're down-to-earth...What they lack in experience, they replace with enthusiasm."^[5]

For this film, Zhao Wei intended to take the story in a panorama view to the life of college students in the 1990s, "not just a love triangle", "I'd like to devote this film to everyone out there who had a similar youth... It's a memory shared by those who were born on the Chinese Mainland between the 1970s and early 80s."^[6] Zhao also bought the rights to Suede's song for the film.^[7]

Production on the film started from March 3 and ended on June 22, 2012.^[8][9]

• Theme song: "To Youth" (致青春)^[10]
  • Composer: Dou Peng
  • Lyricist: Li Qiang
  • Performer: Faye Wong