The Breaking Ice follows the story three Gen Z folks who get consumed with each other and form an unlikely bond in a world post COVID yet filled with anxiety and depression. The story here is layered and nuanced that almost allows the film to thaw with its underlying set of emotions and equations that are less dramatic and reek of acceptance. And this is what fills the drama with bouts of melancholy and pathos that drives the narrative against the era of the pandemic. This might be a story of addressing depression and sorrow but also is a story of hope and revival in many ways. The screenplay standing at a shade under a 100 minutes is crisp and taut while dealing with a lot of shades that are essentially unsaid in the larger scheme of things.

The drama opens with the quick introduction of the characters featuring Nana who is a tour guide in the small town of Yanji, north of China and within shouting distance of North Korea. The setting of the drama paints a grim picture with the onset of snow that provides no respite and is a bleak reality of life post COVID. Nana often wears a charming smile while dealing with her visitors and completely switching off post work with a view to abandon her job and town, something that she doesn’t enjoy doing. She often ends her assigned trip by stopping by at a restaurant run by Xiao with whom she shares an on-off flirty relationship. Xiao is dealing with issues of his own having run away from his place to assist his uncle and aunt with the restaurant business. The third wheel in this saga is Hao, a man of few words working with a Financial firm in Shanghai while suffering from depression. Now while his state isn’t clear, you are aware of the latter after he continues to avoid calls from his therapy center by stating that they have the wrong number. A chance encounter ensues where the two worlds collide while the trio form an unlikely bond.

The proceedings are nuanced and unhurried while completely relying on the coming of age dynamics between the trio to fuel the narrative. And the dynamics essentially shift in the most subtle manner in what is a love triangle in the purest form. Through the course of the events, we get to know that Xiao has feelings for Nana, something that the latter avoids with a case in point being the scene at the lounge wherein Xiao tries to unsuccessfully kiss Nana who stops him. Yet, both Xiao and Nana accept their dynamics with the entry of Hao with whom Nana shares a casual but an intimate bond. So even when Xiao gets to know about it, there is a sense of resentment but the drama is absolutely still wherein he doesn’t emote. This, while Nana hugs Xiao in a bid to stop him from leaving from her life.

Hao and Xiao share a cordial bond themselves which is devoid of tension arising due to Nana. They are comfortable to share the room for the night and respect each other’s spaces with respect to Nana. Yet it is Hao who takes a liking for the new found place that he had only visited to attend a wedding, contrary to the fact that Xiao and Nana find it as a prison and wish to escape from their respective realities. In other words, every character is dealing with depression arising from their past while trying to escape their respective realities.

The drama is essentially about friendship and bonding between the trio that accentuates during their shoplifting encounters or a trip that they take to Heaven Lake on a mountain. The trip however was symbolic of how we don’t necessarily obtain things the way we like them in the wake that the trio had to return following the adverse weather conditions. The weather in itself was symbolic of their psyche with atleast two of the three characters being suicidal at various junctures of the drama before common sense prevails. The ending of the film was symbolic of this very fact that it is important to hang in there while the weather would change while also emphasizing on the point that while escaping from our realities might be easy, it is returning to our worlds that is hard but more beneficial in the long run. The screenplay is wonderfully penned and shall gently tug the strings of your heart.