Between Worlds

Synopsis of Between Worlds​
Wang Chaofeng and five of his young friends travel into the desert, shortly after which they encounter a tornado. After the storm, their SUV is buried deep in the sand. They hold a bonfire to celebrate their survival, planning to dig it out the next day and move on. But, the next morning, when one of their group dies in an accident, they realize they are in grave danger in the desert.​
Wang decides to lead his remaining four friends out of the desert on foot. They encourage each other to bear the burning sun and the threat of dehydration, but after going in the wrong direction and circling back to their starting point, seeing mirages, and other such experiences, Wang Chaofeng loses two more friends to injury, thirst, and despair, leaving only his girlfriend Xinping and his strange companion Mingzhen alive.​
After a series of disasters and hardships, Wang Chaofeng's physical strength is completely overdrawn. In despair, he realizes that his own death is near, so he asks Mingzhen to lead Xinping out of the desert, but this is when Mingzhen tells him the truth --​
Originally, all five of his friends were killed in the tornado they encountered in the desert. Wang Chaofeng is the sole survivor. He struggles to live on, but in his loneliness he imagines that his best friends and lover have not died, and that he is leading "everyone" out of the desert. In his fantasy, he projects each part of his personality onto his several friends. Rationality is represented by “Mingzhen” (lit. “clear truth”), and finally, through a conversation with "Mingzhen", Wang Chaofeng comes face to face with the deepest loneliness and terror in his heart.​
Through its story, the film creates two kinds of truth: one the externally perceptible truth, the other the internally perceptible truth. As a metaphor for life, this journey through the desert expresses the director's reflection on the truth of our existence.​