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Unemployment in middle age, P2P crash, mortgage default, sick elderly, Gao Zhilei, a former employee of a large factory, suddenly went into reverse in his life. Under heavy pressure, he chose to become a food delivery man, and this job was much harder than he imagined.

Data from Lighthouse Professional Edition shows that as of 18:00 on August 12, the box office of the film "Reverse Life" directed, written and starred by Xu Zheng exceeded 194 million yuan. The film more realistically reflects the survival dilemma faced by all classes in the current environment. It does not beautify or consume suffering, but focuses on mutual recognition, understanding and respect between people.

Algorithms are not just for deliverymen

On August 10, at the Shanghai roadshow of "Reverse Life", Xu Zheng shared a detail of his experience as a deliveryman: when delivering food, no one recognized him. This made him realize that many people, when facing a deliveryman, would at most take the food and not even look at the deliveryman. Therefore, the film shot many close-up shots of the deliverymen, and behind each face, there is a different life story.

"Reverse Life" starts from the life changes and new starting points of a middle-class city. When people reach middle age, like Gao Zhilei, they have old parents and young children to take care of, and the problems of life come one after another. At the beginning of the story, Gao Zhilei was "optimized" by the big company where he had worked diligently for more than ten years. Ironically, the algorithm that "optimized" him was developed by his team. After being abandoned by the big company, the reality of "old age" and the demand for high salary could not match. The resume he submitted fell into the sea. Gao Zhilei chose to become a takeaway driver, and what awaited him was a more harsh algorithm system.

The film reflects the living conditions of food delivery drivers in a relatively realistic way. For example, the platform's tiered salary system makes this job more and more competitive and it is increasingly difficult to make money. The orders that new riders receive are long distances with low returns. Before they become familiar with the road conditions in big cities and the locations of each restaurant, they need to pay a lot of tuition fees, including not being able to find the delivery location, customers canceling orders, and losing contact. Overtime means bad reviews and deductions. With the countdown prompt, food delivery drivers need to withstand great mental pressure and race against time to complete the work of picking up and delivering food.

In order to receive more cost-effective orders in the future, they can only run more orders. Some people even worry about whether their orders will be overdue after a car accident. In an ironic scene, Gao Zhilei fell to the ground due to hypoglycemia, and the live fish bought by the customer jumped into the river. He not only had to apologize and pay the customer, but also struggled to smile bitterly at the "smile assessment" in the system. The result of failing the assessment is "three-day account suspension." Behind all kinds of difficulties, we also reflect on the irrationality of the system and algorithm.

In this story, we can see a rich and vivid group of deliverymen, who come out from behind the uniform and write their own life stories. "Lao Kou" played by Wang Xiao lives frugally in order to raise money for the treatment of his daughter who suffers from leukemia; Dahei, played by Feng Bing, has been desperately occupying the position of "Single King" for many years in order to pay off the debts of another young deliveryman who was disabled in an accident; Dashan, played by Wu Jiakai, has worked in many professions such as group performance and NPC. He is warm to others and has his own ideal of love. Although the algorithm forces them to keep rolling inward, they still choose to support each other and share their experiences with others without reservation. Gao Zhilei, who was born as a programmer, also used his skills and, with the help of his colleagues, designed software that can help everyone improve efficiency. At the end of the film, Gao Zhilei, who finally grabbed the "Single King", said: "We have worked hard enough, so we deserve respect and deserve a better life, right?" This sentence is both a question and a cry.

Look at every profession with an inclusive eye

Survey data shows that the number of workers in new employment forms, including online car-hailing drivers, couriers, and food delivery workers, has reached 84 million. As can be seen from the film, it tries to point out a reality that workers who provide convenience for people's lives have not received the respect they deserve. For example, some shopping malls do not allow food delivery workers to enter through the main entrance, but only through narrow and cramped dedicated passages. A user who filled in the wrong address and caused the food delivery worker to be overtime threatened the food delivery worker with a bad review and ordered him to apologize loudly. Gao Zhilei had no choice but to do so because the platform would deduct 100 yuan for each bad review.

Xu Zheng said that when he was delivering food, the customers he met were generally reasonable. "If I was late for a long time, they would say it was okay, because movies are dramatic. However, there are indeed some people who think that they are very impressive just because they ordered something." He added, "The platform is very powerful in deducting money from deliverymen. If you give a bad review once, many previous orders will be in vain."

Actress Liu Meihan plays a female food delivery rider, Qiu Xiaomin, in the film. In the process of preparing for the role, she paid special attention to the situation of female food delivery riders, "They have their difficulties, but also their happiness." Liu Meihan was deeply impressed by one of the female riders, "She graduated from college and was a food delivery rider for the first time. She said she liked the feeling of riding an electric bike through the city after receiving an order, with the wind blowing in her hair, and she felt very free."

"Female delivery drivers have a harder time, including more physical difficulties. You can also see female riders carrying large buckets of water up to the sixth floor in an old residential area. That is a great feminine strength." Liu Meihan also noticed that many people have found professional value in such hard work. In her opinion, people should be more tolerant of the professions they often come into contact with, and be more considerate and respectful.

In response to a viewer's question about whether "Reverse Life" could cause a response or change at the social level like "Dying to Survive", Xu Zheng said that movies often fail to solve problems directly, but rather raise questions and trigger resonance and thinking among the audience on an emotional level.

In Xu Zheng's opinion, movies cannot change many realities, but they can change people's hearts. This change in people's hearts may bring about some changes in actions, such as starting with giving good reviews to delivery men. "In the days when everyone is having a hard time, in the fragile and uncertain time of real life, treat yourself with the greatest kindness, and treat others with such kindness, and convey love and warmth to each other."