“The Breaking Ice” is commented as “ambiguous” by audience once it came out. The director appears to have become overly fixated on symbol settings, incorporating numerous metaphors and symbols that nearly overshadow the storyline itself. For uninterested audience, it's genuinely uncomfortable. But watch it out first before jumping to any conclusion: there are reasons behind its Oscar nomination.

To interpret “The Breaking Ice,” one must first recognize what the threshold for this film truly is. It requires breaking away from conventional thinking. Firstly, in terms of sexual orientation, there is no heterosexuality or homosexuality in this film; it’s only love between people. Each person is open to both genders. Han Xiao (Qu Chuxiao,) is attracted to Haofeng (Liu Haoran) from the start. In a scene where he plays the guitar and sings a love song, the camera suddenly shifts to Haofeng on the sofa, whose eyes are affectionately fixed on Nana (Zhou Dongyu). This shifting portrayal of desire is one of the film's standout moments.

Another aspect is not to overly consider realism or contemporaneity in this film. It is not telling a story but narrating the brief escape of a few distressed young people from reality. One detail is Haofeng's watch, which stops shortly after the film begins. Time is the metric of reality, and when time stops, reality stops too.

Therefore, everything is incidental and idealized in this film, not representing any generation of young people but simply exploring human suffering. The focus of the film shifts from the storyline to the inner transformations of these three individuals, constituting the entirety of the film. The most obvious change is in the characters' positions, initially with Nana acting as a mediator in the middle, a mutual object of affection. Later, it gradually shifts to Haofeng in the middle, and the position is no longer fixed, achieving a true blending of hearts.

The three characters happen to be at different stages of life, forming an endless loop about the past, present, and future: Han Xiao stays at home, curious about the outside world; Haofeng lives in the outside world—Shanghai—thinking "it's just so-so"; Nana has been wandering for many years, drifting and lost, wanting to go home in the end. They have completely different identities, but ultimately, they all fall into meaninglessness. Life, for them, is like the tail-chasing futility of a snake, and the so-called ideal life state is often like Tianchi on Changbai Mountain, obscured by fog once they almost get there.

To some extent, they represent all of us. Fortunate for us, there are moments when fates intersect, faces come close and warmth is shared. They break the ice, and construct the meaning to go on.