Our Generation
"it's hard to learn how to be an adult when you are clearly just a child"
Our Generation is a coming-of-age and slice of life drama. A visual ode to memory,
from its very opening scenes, it envelops me in a warm, nostalgic haze. The soft-focus visuals like brimming with golden sunlight, dust-kissed mountain roads, and gentle schoolyard banter—create an atmosphere that feels both surreal and timeless. The lighting choices smartly reflect the emotional journey of the characters: scenes featuring Yingtao glow with brightness and optimism, while Qiaoxi's frames are cast in cooler, more introspective tones, mirroring his internal struggle.
This drama doesn’t just tell a story — it transports you. Set in the 1990s and early 2000s, it honors this era through cultural artifacts like magnetic pens, walkie-talkies, stacking letter boxes, nokia phones, payphones, and handwritten letters enshrine the story in a tangible past. They're not just props. they're threads connecting characters, forging that unique nostalgic charm.
These carefully chosen details, paired with amazing screenplay, ground emotions in intimacy. Each word spoken by the characters, each experiences brings warmth and aching to my longing soul.
I also love how the drama explores the beauty of life through different lenses using each character in the story. Like Yingtao, she’s not just of cheeriness, but a found of warmth imbued with growing emotional intelligence, loyalty, and matured empathy. Zhang Linghe’s as Qiaoxi is a study in reserved brilliance, an emotionally wounded soul forged by expectations and neglect, gradually softened by genuine care.
The supporting characters—parents burdened by unresolved grief, classmates scarred by loss, neighbors embodying unspoken solidarity—add textured realism, grounding the lead’s stories in a web of human interconnectedness. And I LOOOVEE the squad and their friendship. The beauty of watching them grew up and reach their dreams struck hard in my heart, as I can relate to it heavily.
Though, the drama occasionally loses its footing in pacing. There are few episodes, notably 6-10, where there are choppy narrative rhythms and accelerated character arcs. Key emotional beats and secondary storylines sometimes feel compressed or underdeveloped, limiting the emotional payoff. Also there are times where the serene cinematography risks slipping into mere ambience, leaving longing for deeper narrative. The ending is also bit rushed, and leaves me yearning for more of the Hongkong Arc, as this is where the story fully takes flight, and characters are expressed deeper.
Overall, it's visual warmth, nostalgic textures, and emotionally resonant pacing make it feel like reading a cherished letter from the past. If your heart is ever drawn to the tender ache of growing up, framed by sweeping landscapes, handwritten letters, and shy glances full of longing, this series will feel like revisiting our own youth. Despite its pacing flaws, the performances of the cast, aesthetic richness of the cinematography, beauty of the dialogues and script, and emotional sincerity of the story make Our Generation a memorable exploration of the delicate, in-between spaces of growing up and finding love for yourself and others along the way.