Introduction
Once in a while, despite its tight censorship, China produces arthouse dramas that are artistic and experimental rather than merely entertaining. The mini-drama What a Wonderful World is one of them. It features unique visual styles, unconventional narrative structures, and thought-provoking themes. It explores complex and challenging ideas, with a focus on character development and psychological depth.
In my opinion, the drama stands out with its new or unusual narrative in an interesting way, a light suspense with a sci-fi perspective that cleverly integrates virtual space with elements of mental health. It’s bingewatch-worthy in one go. So, enjoy the surreal and thrilling viewing journey!
Drama Info
Drama title: What a Wonderful World (Native title: 在人间 )
Alternative title: Zai Ren Jian
Genres: Psychological, Thriller
Aired: May 28, 2025 - Jun 1, 2025
Episodes: 8 | Duration: 40 minutes
Directors: Xu Bing ( 徐兵 ) - Chief Director, Zhang Zhui ( 张卓 ), Xu Tian ( 徐添 )
Screenwriter: Xu Bing ( 徐兵 )
Where to watch: iQiyi
Trailer:
Synopsis
This is a healing journey of self-reconciliation. In the world of adults, the monotony of everyday life silently erodes the soul, between breaking down and recovering, wounds are stitched up and torn open repeatedly. Loneliness drifts through the bustling city, caught in the endless cycle of day and night, swallowed by a dense forest of steel and concrete, where neither light nor a sky of one’s own can be found.
Two souls, reflected in a rearview mirror, gradually shed their disguises and defenses, finding redemption and embracing each other in love. Reality and illusion intertwine, suspense and mystery weave together, and emotions and salvation coexist. Ultimately, the self is the way home. Looking at the world once more, one is no longer alone (Source: iQiyi).
When I read the synopsis from iQiyi, honestly I was confused because it’s vague. Below is another synopsis from Baidu, that tells the story more plainly without spoiling the plot.
Ride-hailing passenger Jia Xiao Duo and the part-time driver Xu Tian with identity crisis accompany each other into the “virtual space” to embark on a spiritual journey. During their adventures in multiple worlds, they encounter various young people, each with their own struggles and troubles. However, with mutual help and encouragement, they gradually break free from their constraints and ultimately achieve self-healing.
Character
Without spoiling much, I will describe not only the main characters but also the supporting characters. Something is interesting about them, which I will spoil at the end of the article.
Main Characters
Zhao Li Ying ( 赵丽颖 ) as Jia Xiao Duo
A ride-hailing passenger. Her personality is lively and brave, combining gentleness and decisiveness, representing the idealized self that Xu Tian longs for. Jia Xiao Duo is Xu Tian’s crush. She once tested Xu Tian’s feelings through an “immersive theater test” and later established a relationship with him in a dream.
Yin Fang ( 尹昉 ) as Xu Tian
A system engineer and a ride-hailing driver. With an introverted and delicate personality, Xu Tian joined the dream control experiment to get closer to his crush, Jia Xiao Duo. He entered the dream world as Jia Xiao Duo and received the task of helping Yu Dan, Liu Tiao Er, and Tie Lin overcome their obsessions and avoid expulsion. During the mission, he gradually lost himself and once thought he had become Jia Xiao Duo.
Supporting Characters
Wang Yang Ming (Zhang Yishan)
Jia Xiao Duo’s ex-boyfriend. Impulsive and easily angered. Wang Yang Ming once deliberately provoked Xu Tian on the street and later collaborated with Jia Xiao Duo in an immersive theater to test Xu Tian’s sincerity. Afterward, he confessed to Xu Tian that he had already broken up with Jia Xiao Duo and advised him to face his feelings directly.
Shi Yi Ben (Zhou Yi Wei)
A staff member at the Lucid Dream Testing Center, and a healer at Xishan Healing Institute. Calm and rational by nature. Shi Yi Ben, who controls the testing equipment, is well aware of Xu Tian’s mental condition and has repeatedly used the psychological theory of “id and ego” to suggest that he confront his inner self.
Yu Dan (Dong Zi Jian)
A surgeon. He is reclusive and sensitive. Yu Dan, having long awaited a letter from his mother, is trapped in a dream train carriage. He wears earmuffs to block out external sounds, immersing himself in his own world, filled with a longing and obsession for familial love. Xu Tian forged a letter from his mother to complete his task.
Liu Tiao Er (Sun Qian)
A homebody. Liu Tiao Er is a girl with agoraphobia. She spends most of her time confined in her room, painting the walls, afraid of close contact with others, and relies on ordering takeout to avoid social interactions.
Tie Lin (Ge Zheng)
A deliveryman. With a volatile and paranoid personality, Tie Lin, due to being misunderstood and neglected by his mother during childhood, is filled with resentment and has a pathological obsession with money. In the dream, he entangles Jia Xiao Duo because he didn’t receive a good review, trying to gain recognition and compensation through extreme means.
Review
Story and Plot
As an arthouse production, the story is not only completely artistic and symbolic but also experimental with boundless imagination. A rare and a bit surreal fantasy series.
Episode by episode is full of metaphor-rich plot intricacies. When I started the first episode, I was clueless. In the next three episodes, although sprinkles of hints are given, I have more questions. From Episodes 1 to 4, the drama constantly unlocks new characters and introduces suspenseful twists. By the fifth episode, suddenly I understand everything and those sprinkles of hints make sense. The ending gives me mixed feelings, I don’t know if I should be happy or sad (see the spoiler about the ending).
This is a drama you can’t skip or fast forward as your mind has to keep up at all times. There’s a thrilling sense of “you think you know, but do you really?”
Don’t forget to watch the post-credit scene in the final episode.
Theme and Message
The description of the theme and the message contain minimal spoilers.
Themes
The protagonist suffers from a mental illness. Besides suffering from severe childhood trauma, particularly long-term neglect, he was also extremely lonely. The profound themes such as loneliness, self-identity, and redemption. As he knows that he suffers from this particular condition, he seeks therapy. We also see how during therapy he undergoes the process of redemption.
The suffering from mental illness uses various metaphors that are brilliant. For example, the train moving forward represents a yearning for freedom, the willow branch jumping into the sea is a manifestation of the subconscious, the disappearance of Wang Yang Ming symbolizes the removal of obsessions, the ostrich with the supposed ostrich behavior of burying their heads in the sand symbolizes avoidance of problems, the butterfly symbolizes transformation or rebirth.
Wang Yang Ming’s disappearance
Messages
- The drama reflects the eternal question of self-identity, guiding viewers through a labyrinth of reality and illusion in their exploration of the mind, prompting deep reflections on self and life.
- It is recommended to learn some psychological knowledge about the disorder (symptoms, cause, help, etc.).
- Healing, no matter it’s physical or mental illness, first requires being discovered, then being understood, and finally being accepted. The process goes both ways with the person who suffers from the condition, and the people surrounding the person (caregiver, physician, family members, coworkers, society, etc). This is not a story about solving a puzzle; it’s a story about embracing oneself.
Pacing and Editing
The pacing is tight and a bit mind-bending. Since the plot doesn’t drag on, sometimes I had to replay and rewatch to analyze the storyline.
I really cannot review the editing, because the storyline is also non-linear, so the scene sequence can be considered confusing. There is a mix of reality, fantasy, and symbolism.
Characterization and Acting
I strongly empathized with the emotions of this story and its characters. The portrayal of modern-day people’s psychological issues in the drama is so realistic.
Zhao Li Ying, although her character is supposed to be the second lead, the actress basically played two (or even three) personalities. When you watched the drama you know which personalities she played. The third one is shown briefly in the post-credit of the final episode. The personalities of the three characters were really brought to life. Even though it was the same person acting, you could really feel the difference between the three characters.
Yi Fan seemed to fit these types of characters. He’s not as popular or as experienced as Zhao Li Ying, however, in this drama, his acting matched his co-star. Moreover, although this is not a romance drama, per se, Zhao Li Ying and Yi Fan have great chemistry together.
The supporting and guest actors and actresses gave their all in acting.
Jia Xiao Duo and Tie Lin’s confrontation in the water tunnel
Cinematography and Visual Effects
The visuals are particularly stunning and fantastical, very novel. The core still conveys the real emotions of the characters.
Cinematography
This drama employs a variety of bold and unusual filming techniques to construct a virtual world, including:
- Hitchcock-style shots manipulate perception and build suspense through visual storytelling, particularly through the use of subjective camera angles and the dolly zoom (also known as the Vertigo shot). Other key elements include POV shots, reverse-angle cuts, and the use of shadows and lighting to create a sense of unease.
- Puppet filming techniques manipulate inanimate figures (puppets) to create the illusion of life.
- Water droplet motion shots capture the beauty and fleeting moments of water droplets in motion.
- One-take methods: a single, continuous shot of a scene.
Water-droplet motion shot when Jia Xiao Duo jumped into the water
Special and Visual Effects
In terms of art design, the creative team of the show uses a light sci-fi cyberpunk aesthetic as the foundation, rendering the world of consciousness in high-saturation neon colors, which creates a visual contrast with the cold tones of the real world.
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of “low-life and high tech”.
The collapsing city
The train scene’s special effects were amazing!
The drama also uses movie-level CGI such as collapsing snow mountains, trains on water, and collapsing cities.
CGI on train on water
Filming location
The drama was filmed in Chongqing, with filming locations including Nanan District, Yuzhong District, and Jiangbei District.
The fantastical scene in which Jia Xiao Duo “jumps off a train” in the drama was filmed at Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.
CGI on the train and its destruction with the background of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park
Original Soundtracks
The main theme/opening theme/interlude “寻” (“Search”) is sung by the leading actors Zhao Li Ying and Yin Fang. The above link is the MV.
The closing theme “Lost and Found” is sung by Mandarin普通人.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I don’t know how to recommend this drama accurately. It’s not a masterpiece, but it shines in its own way. The storytelling, especially from Episodes 1 to 4, is rather bizarre and non-linear, the characters are realistic and flawed, and the cinematography is top-notch. During the viewing process, I explored the complexity of mental health, was surprised by the plot twists, enjoyed the acting of the majority of the characters, and was in awe of the spectacle of visuals. In the end, I felt relieved, and that was enough.
Spoilers
What is interesting about the characters? (major spoiler!)
Xu Tian is suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Jia Xiao Duo, Wang Yang Ming, Yu Dan, Liu Tiao Er, and Tie Lin are all Xu Tian’s alter egos. Jia Xiao Duo is Xu Tian’s strongest and ideal alter ego.
What is the ending?
It can be said as a happy ending. However, I personally think it’s a bittersweet ending, though nobody dies. See the spoiler below.
How is the ending?
Xu Tian chose to lie to his doctor (Shi Yi Ben) with the pretense that Jia Xiao Duo disappeared. But she wasn’t. Instead of going for another treatment, he chose to ‘live happily’ with Jia Xiao Duo.
I think it’s a bittersweet. Bitter, because although he was happy, Xu Tian is not completely healed. Jia Xiao Duo has a strong personality. If one day she decides to take over Xu Tian’s weaker personality (“forced switching”), he might have a problem. The switching process can result in memory gaps (amnesia), changes in behavior, and altered perceptions of self and the environment.
Sweet because on the post-credit, it shows he has a happy and productive life. He chose to live with the one he loves and who loves him in his heart.
