# Endgame (人潮汹涌) (2021 film)
**Endgame** (人潮汹涌, also romanized *Ren Chao Xiong Yong*) is a 2021 Chinese crime comedy film directed by Rao Xiaozhi (饶晓志) and starring [Andy Lau](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-lau) (刘德华), Xiao Yang (肖央), and Wan Qian (万茜). It is a Chinese remake of the 2012 Japanese film *Key of Life* (盗钥匙的方法), and it tells of a cold-blooded hitman and a struggling film extra who accidentally exchange identities.[1](https://pdf.hanspub.org/arl20220100000_35106564.pdf) The film was released in mainland China on 12 February 2021, the first day of the Year of the Ox Spring Festival holiday slot, where it opened last among seven new releases but later staged a gradual box-office recovery.[2](https://www.zhihu.com/topic/21217919/intro) • [3](https://www.peopleapp.com/rmharticle/30021598676)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / English title | 人潮汹涌 (*Ren Chao Xiong Yong*); English title Endgame[1](https://pdf.hanspub.org/arl20220100000_35106564.pdf) • [4](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2250739/guided/) |
| Director and writers | Directed by Rao Xiaozhi; screenplay by Rao Xiaozhi, Fan Xiang, and Li Xiang[5](https://www.tvmao.com/movie/YWNgaXEh) |
| Lead cast | Andy Lau as hitman Zhou Quan, Xiao Yang as extra Chen Xiaomeng, Wan Qian as media professional Li Xiang[1](https://pdf.hanspub.org/arl20220100000_35106564.pdf) • [6](https://www.iq.com/album/%E4%BA%BA%E6%BD%AE%E6%B1%B9%E6%B6%8C-2021-gxojh05ty0?lang=en_us) |
| Source | Remake of the Japanese film *Key of Life* (盗钥匙的方法, 2012); Korea had remade the same story as *Lucky Key* in 2016[1](https://pdf.hanspub.org/arl20220100000_35106564.pdf) • [7](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/yj/lwby72/2023051215275027356/index.html) |
| Release | 12 February 2021 (Chinese New Year's Day), mainland China, Mandarin, 1 h 59 m[2](https://www.zhihu.com/topic/21217919/intro) • [6](https://www.iq.com/album/%E4%BA%BA%E6%BD%AE%E6%B1%B9%E6%B6%8C-2021-gxojh05ty0?lang=en_us) |
| Spring Festival box office | 1.51 billion yuan (151 million) during the 11–17 February holiday, last of the seven holiday films[8](https://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2021-02/18/c_1127110481.htm) |
| Reception | Douban opening score 7.6, later 7.2; third among holiday films in the official audience-satisfaction survey[9](https://m.fx361.com/news/2021/0507/8307369.html) • [8](https://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2021-02/18/c_1127110481.htm) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Chen Xiaomeng (肖央 饰) has long wanted to be an actor but remains stuck in bit parts, with no money, no job, no girlfriend, no friends, and a large debt; after several failed suicide attempts, he goes to a public bathhouse, where he meets a mysterious, wealthy man played by Andy Lau. The man slips, falls unconscious, and is taken to a hospital; Chen picks up his locker wristband and decides to take over his identity and enjoy the life of a rich man. The blow to the head leaves the man with amnesia, and following fragmentary clues he concludes that he is Chen Xiaomeng and moves into Chen's rented room. There he meets Li Xiang (万茜 饰), a self-media professional, and the two develop a relationship.[6](https://www.iq.com/album/%E4%BA%BA%E6%BD%AE%E6%B1%B9%E6%B6%8C-2021-gxojh05ty0?lang=en_us)
The two leads' identities are thus inverted: a top hitman, Zhou Quan, wakes with nothing, while a destitute extra suddenly lives as a wealthy man, and a series of comic mishaps follows as their lives keep crossing.[1](https://pdf.hanspub.org/arl20220100000_35106564.pdf) A scholarly analysis of the film notes that the public bathhouse, a place where people shed the outward markers of status and wealth, gives the identity exchange a ritual quality.[1](https://pdf.hanspub.org/arl20220100000_35106564.pdf)
## Production and adaptation
Rao Xiaozhi, a theater-trained director whose earlier films were *A Foolless World* (你好，疯子！) and *A Cool Fish* (无名之辈), described *Endgame* as an urban adult fairy tale, with richer camera language, more locations, and a larger script than his previous closed-space stories.[10](https://www.sohu.com/a/450377978_161795) The production companies listed for the film include Huaming Star Culture Media, Beijing Freedom Cool Whale Film, Emperor Film (英皇影业), and Beijing Enlight Pictures, among others.[2](https://www.zhihu.com/topic/21217919/intro)
**Localization.** The adaptation keeps the original's story structure and character setup, an accidental "life swap" brought about by fate, but relocates it from Japan to Shanghai and adds distinctly contemporary Chinese details: garbage sorting, phone password locks, video recording of an "attack" scene, collecting transaction cash from parcel lockers, and card cloning.[7](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/yj/lwby72/2023051215275027356/index.html) • [4](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2250739/guided/) To suit the family-friendly holiday slot, the villains' menace was softened toward caricature, and the final fight raises the emotional warmth among the three main characters for a more humane ending.[7](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/yj/lwby72/2023051215275027356/index.html)
**Intertextuality.** Much of the film's comedy draws on classic Hong Kong cinema through parody and collage. Andy Lau's unmasking in the opening scene is described by the China Film Archive's journal as a ritual moment in which his image overlaps with the films he once starred in, such as *A Moment of Romance* and *Infernal Affairs*, letting audiences revisit classic Hong Kong genre cinema.[7](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/yj/lwby72/2023051215275027356/index.html) The score and props invoke [Stephen Chow](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-chow)'s *King of Comedy*, including the song Here We Are Again and the book *An Actor's Self-Cultivation*, and a fleeting television image parodies Chow's own extra experience in the 1983 *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*.[7](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/yj/lwby72/2023051215275027356/index.html)
## Box office performance
The 2021 Spring Festival slot was the strongest on record: national box office from [New Year's Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-years-eve) (11 February) to the sixth holiday day (17 February) reached 7.822 billion yuan, up 32.47 percent from 2019's 5.905 billion, with 160 million admissions.[8](https://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2021-02/18/c_1127110481.htm) Within that record-setting week, *Endgame* took 1.51 billion yuan, far behind *Detective Chinatown 3* at 3.562 billion yuan and *Hi, Mom* at 2.722 billion yuan, and last among the seven holiday films.[8](https://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2021-02/18/c_1127110481.htm) On opening day it earned 44.4 million yuan.[11](https://www.dianyingjie.com.cn/2021/0213/124046.shtml)
**Slow recovery.** From the fifth holiday day the film's fortunes improved step by step: its screenings surpassed *The Yin-Yang Master* on day five, *[New Gods: Nezha Reborn](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-gods-nezha-reborn)* on the first working day after the holiday, *Boonie Bears* on the ninth day, and *A Writer's Odyssey* on the fourteenth day; on the twenty-second day its daily screening count exceeded even *Detective Chinatown 3*, making it second among holiday films in daily screenings.[3](https://www.peopleapp.com/rmharticle/30021598676) On its thirteenth day of release its screening share reached 11.8 percent, overtaking *A Writer's Odyssey*, and its daily box office rose to third among the seven holiday films.[12](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2021-02/26/c_1127140821.htm) Its seat occupancy led the slot for several consecutive days as word of mouth spread.[13](https://chinafilmnews.net/UploadFiles/file/20210310/202103100203245017.pdf) Director Rao Xiaozhi publicly recorded a video asking theaters for more screening space after the film opened last with just over 100 million yuan in four days.[9](https://m.fx361.com/news/2021/0507/8307369.html)
Total gross figures differ between sources: an analysis of slot scheduling puts its take at 187 million yuan, or 2.69 percent of the period's national total,[14](https://www.jiemian.com/article/5764107.html) while a weekly film-market report gives 2.75 billion yuan at a later point in its run.[15](https://www.xn--fiqs8sr9gzmd215a.com/UploadFiles/file/20210224/202102240602071675.pdf) One commentary argued that the film, backed by Enlight and Emperor without a major cinema-chain stakeholder, was disadvantaged in screening allocation against films tied to the two largest chains, and that the gap in allocations pointed to possible restrictions on competition.[14](https://www.jiemian.com/article/5764107.html)
## Reception
*Endgame* opened with a Douban score of 7.6, later settling at 7.2, third among the holiday's films on that platform.[9](https://m.fx361.com/news/2021/0507/8307369.html) In the China Film Art Research Center's audience-satisfaction survey, *Hi, Mom*, *Detective Chinatown 3*, and *Endgame* took the top three places for the 2021 Spring Festival slot; the survey described *Endgame* as using absurdist humor and small-scale storytelling to focus on ordinary people's struggles.[8](https://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2021-02/18/c_1127110481.htm)
Critical opinion divided over the adaptation. A Beijing Evening News review called it a somewhat ill-fitting remake, arguing that despite extensive localization the story felt awkward compared with *Key of Life*, though the aphorism that a self-disciplined person lives well in any circumstances gave the first half a serious tone.[16](https://www.chinanews.com/m/yl/2021/03-03/9423432.shtml) A China Film Archive essay credited the film with clear localization and intertextual wit but noted that its many "homages" sometimes read as film-buff in-jokes, and that a climax driven by a contrived misunderstanding lacked the fatalistic absurdity of, say, the [Coen brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/coen-brothers).[7](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/yj/lwby72/2023051215275027356/index.html) • [17](https://www.yuanxian1.com/m/view.php?aid=13816) Commentators also connected the film to Rao's continuing interest in small figures at the bottom of society, extending the theme of *A Cool Fish*.[9](https://m.fx361.com/news/2021/0507/8307369.html) • [17](https://www.yuanxian1.com/m/view.php?aid=13816)
## References
1. [石中玉 (2022). 肉体、身份与人性：基于梅洛·庞蒂身体哲学对《人潮汹涌》的身体叙事分析. Hans Publishers.](https://pdf.hanspub.org/arl20220100000_35106564.pdf)
2. [人潮汹涌 - 知乎话题 (猫眼电影数据)](https://www.zhihu.com/topic/21217919/intro)
3. [《人潮汹涌》的惊险"赌局". 人民日报客户端.](https://www.peopleapp.com/rmharticle/30021598676)
4. [人潮汹涌_导赏. 1905电影网.](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2250739/guided/)
5. [人潮汹涌剧情介绍. 电视猫.](https://www.tvmao.com/movie/YWNgaXEh)
6. [人潮汹涌 (2021). iQIYI.](https://www.iq.com/album/%E4%BA%BA%E6%BD%AE%E6%B1%B9%E6%B6%8C-2021-gxojh05ty0?lang=en_us)
7. [雷晶晶 (2023). 《人潮汹涌》：本土化与互文本. 中国电影家协会.](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfa/yj/lwby72/2023051215275027356/index.html)
8. [2021年春节档电影票房78.22亿元 比2019年增长32.47%. 新华网.](https://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2021-02/18/c_1127110481.htm)
9. [张琦 (2021). 《人潮汹涌》：被"错杀"的春节档电影. 综艺报/参考网.](https://m.fx361.com/news/2021/0507/8307369.html)
10. [《人潮汹涌》主创："和刘德华合作，是很有营养的一种工作". 搜狐/南方都市报.](https://www.sohu.com/a/450377978_161795)
11. [2021春节档大年初一票房突破17.4亿. 电影界.](https://www.dianyingjie.com.cn/2021/0213/124046.shtml)
12. [春节档两家欢喜五家愁 好档期为啥成就不了好票房？新华网.](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2021-02/26/c_1127140821.htm)
13. [中国电影报 (2021-03-10).](https://chinafilmnews.net/UploadFiles/file/20210310/202103100203245017.pdf)
14. [2021春节档排片凸显中国电影行业反垄断监管紧迫性. 界面新闻.](https://www.jiemian.com/article/5764107.html)
15. [中国电影市场周报 (2021-02-24).](https://www.xn--fiqs8sr9gzmd215a.com/UploadFiles/file/20210224/202102240602071675.pdf)
16. [房家梁 (2021). 《人潮汹涌》：一部水土不服的改编之作. 北京晚报/中新网.](https://www.chinanews.com/m/yl/2021/03-03/9423432.shtml)
17. [《人潮汹涌》：翻拍电影的市场挫折与创新尝试. 第一院线.](https://www.yuanxian1.com/m/view.php?aid=13816)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Action comedies › Action comedies, 2020s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license