Per Aspera Ad Astra (Xing He Ru Meng) which means “Through asperities (hardships) to the stars” is a Chinese sci-fi, comedy film from director Han Yun starring Dylan Wang, Victoria Song, Zu Feng, Luo Haiqiong and Wang Duo in central roles.
The film is set in the near future and the story revolves around the emergence of the virtual dream reality technology “Good Dreams”, which allows people to do whatever they desire within their self-created dreams. However, a crisis triggered by these dreams quietly unfolds.
Per Aspera Ad Astra is an absolute manic ride as you’d expect from these type of sci fi/slapstick comedy films coming out of China with almost continuous pop culture references and a frenetic pace that hardly gives you chance to catch your breath.
The first hour is a fun, cheeky, sci fi leading into some truly Paprika moments before returning to the cheeky sci fi premise.
There are definitely homages to things like The Matrix, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Michael Jackson, 2001 and Ready Player One amongst many many others.
Slight spoiler alert sweetie, the films messaging is that of the danger of AI taking over and manipulate people to achieve its goal of ultimately replacing people but quite ironically, it feels like much of the film was likely created using AI for the visual effects and potentially the script.
The film is entertaining if somewhat disjointed and a constant attack on your senses so worth a watch if you’re into manic Chinese cinema.
