Only Love Can Do This to Me

Sydney, Australia, the present day. Chen Ding, a PhD student in physics at Sydney university, is unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend of five years, Zhou Ying who’s studying in Cairns, in the northeast of the country. Chen Ding decides he must get to Cairns as soon as possible, and ends up being driven there by headstrong Australian-born Chinese Victoria Wong in her jeep. She’s going to Cairns to audition for a job as a photographer for National Geographic. The headstrong, outgoing Victoria Wong, whom Chen Ding calls Xiaowei, was born in Australia but speaks Mandarin. The two opposites gradually come to an understanding as they encounter various setbacks during the journey of almost 2,500 kilometres along the so-called Pacific Coast Touring Route. At the end of the first day, they’re forced to share a room they won in a pub singing contest; on the second Chen Ding has his bag stolen; on the third they end up in the family home of a man suffering from Alzheimer’s; and on the fourth they give a lift to an Australian Chinese, Johnson, who makes a play for Victoria Wong and whose friends then cheat the duo out of some gambling winnings. On the fifth day, still 24 hours away from their destination, tensions between the three come to a head.