July 27, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Da Peng
Mandarin with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place during the Tang Dynasty (sometime during the 750s decade) in China, the dramatic film “The Lychee Road” (based on the 2022 novel “Lychees of Chang’an”) features an-all Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A mid-level Bureau of Imperial Gardens inspector experiences various dangerous and frustrating obstacles after being tasked with delivering numerous fresh lychees from Lingnan to Chang’an (about 1,553 miles between the two cities) to the emperor for the emperor’s birthday, before the lychees become spoiled in about three days.
Culture Audience: “The Lychee Road” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful dramas that are set in ancient times but have themes that are still relevant to today.
“The Lychee Road” is a bittersweet drama that’s partly a race-against-time adventure and partly a piercing observation of corrupt bureaucracy. Da Peng gives a tour-de-force performance as a government inspector tasked with a difficult lychee delivery. Although some of the action scenes are far-fetched, “The Lychee Road” has many other scenarios that are entirely believable and well-acted. The movie also makes good use of comedic moments.
Written and directed by Da Peng, “The Lychee Road” is based on Ma Boyong’s 2022 novel “Lychees of Chang’an.” Shen Yuyue and Dai Siao are also credit as scriptwriters for “The Lychee Road.” (There’s also a 2025 Chinese limited drama TV series called “Litchi Road” that is based on the same book.) The movie takes place during the Tang Dynasty (sometime during the 750s decade) in China, with the story centered on travel to and from the capital city of Chang’an and the city of Lingnan, which are about 1,553 miles (or 2,500 kilometers) apart from each other.
“The Lychee Road” begins by showing a conspiracy plan being set in motion. A eunuch named Yu Chao’en (played by Chang Yuan), who is based on the real politician of the same name and is called Eunuch Yu in the movie, has been given orders to find a government employee who can be a scapegoat for an “impossible mission.” The employee has to deliver several fresh lychees (fruit that resembles red berries on the outside) to the emperor in time for the emperor’s birthday celebration on June 1. Failure to do so could be punishable by being exiled or worse.
The problem is that fresh lychees spoil after about three days, and the emperor specifically wants the lychees to come from Lingnan, which is 1,553 miles away from the emperor’s home base of Chang’an. Eunuch Yu knows that travel by horse and by ship would not be enough time to complete this mission, which is why he’s looking for a lower-level person who will get the blame when the mission is expected to fail. Eunuch Yu is seen meeting with a government director named Biao Biao (played by Yi Yunhe), who gleefully tells him that he knows the perfect person who can be set up for this doomed mission.
The targeted person is Li Shande (played by Da Peng), a middle-aged inspector who works in the Bureau of Imperial Gardens. In a voiceover narration, Shande is shown giving a brief summary of hs adult life: After graduating from college with a degree in mathematics, Shande joined the Bureau of Imperial Gardens at age 24.
Shande has been stuck in the ninth rank (the equivalent of middle management) for several years. He’s underpaid, overworked, and frequently bullied by his supervisors. Shande’s personal life is much happier: He has a very good marriage to his loyal wife Zheng Yuting (played by Yang Mi), and they are devoted parents to their adorable daughter Li Xiu’er, who is about 6 or 7 years old.
Shande is assigned the task and is told that he will get a job promotion to be the official lychee envoy if he completes this mission of delivering lychees to the emperor by June 1. (in real life, Emperor Xuanzong was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty during the period of time that this story takes place.) In addition to a higher salary, the job of lychee envoy would also give perks and prestige to Shande and his family. Shande signs a contract to make this delivery by the deadline.
However, Shande finds out later that he’s been conned: The contract that he signed said that the lychees would be preserved, not fresh. When he gets the contract after he’s signed it, he finds out that a tiny, hard-to-detect sticker with the word “fresh” was placed over the word “preserved” after he signed the contract. This altered contract makes it look Shande has agreed to deliver fresh lychees to the emperor by June 1.
Shande angrily confronts Biao Biao about this contract fraud. Biao Biao says that it’s too late for Shande to back out of the contract. Shande is despondent and in a panic because he knows this mission could ruin his life and the lives of his family members. On the day that Shande leaves for Lingnan, the June 1 deadline is 117 days away. He has this period of time to figure out how to deliver fresh lychees from Lingnan to Chang’an.
Before he leaves for the trip to Lingnan, Shande gets an unexpected visit from Du Shaoling (played by Zhang Ruoyun), the assistant military officer of the Right Guard Command. Shande confides in Shaoling about this big problem. Shaoling advises Shande to find a scapegoat if things go wrong. Shaoling also says that Shande could still possibly leverage the experience into being promoted to lychee envoy. Shande is given a Five Prefectures Pass to make his travels easier.
A skeptical and wary Shande travels by himself to Lingnan, in search of the perfect lychees. He encounters many challenges, including bad weather, wild animals, getting lost, and not knowing where to find lychees that would be suitable for the emperor. When he reaches Lingnan, he gets a hostile reaction from Lingnan’s governor He Qiguang (played by Lam Suet), who has some of his thugs rough up Shande because Qiguang doesn’t believe that Shande in on this mission for the emperor. However, Lingnan’s chief secretary Zhao Xinmin (played by Sunny Sun) intercedes and confirms that Shande’s mission is legitimate.
During Shande’s short visit with the governor, he sees an enslaved young man named Lin Yinu (played by Terrance Lau) being viciously whipped because Yinu has been accused of trying to make a partridge look like a peacock. After witnessing this cruelty, Shande has a private conversation with Yinu and tells Yinu that slavery is illegal in Chang’an. Shande promises that when Shande completes this mission, he will come back to get Yinu and take him to Chang’an, where Yinu can live as a free man.
Yinu, who has some speaking disabilities, ends up running away from his enslavers and following Shande around at an outdoor marketplace and other places where Shande goes. At first Shande is annoyed and thinks Yinu is being a pest. However, Yinu ends up becoming a very helpful assistant and later a trusted ally to Shande.
Just by chance, Shande meets a wealthy heir named Su Liang (played by Bai Ke, also known as White-K), who hears about this mission. Liang is up front in telling Shande that Liang’s father gives preference to Liang’s older brother Su Yan (played Wei Xiang) because their father doesn’t think Liang is a good-enough business. Liang wants to prove to their father that that he can do something successful in business. And so, Liang offers Shande the use of his merchant ship and crew to transport the lychees, with Liang covering all the expenses because Liang says he wants Shande to put in a good word for Liang with the emperor.
In exchange for this generous use of the ship and crew, Shande gives his Five Prefectures Pass to Liang, even though it’s illegal to give this pass to anyone else. Liang also tells Shande that the best lychees in Lingnan are at an orchard owned by a woman named Tong (played by Sabrina Zhuang), who inherited the property from her deceased parents. Tong is very outspoken and mistrustful of “city people.” However, Shande gains her trust, and she agrees to help him.
The rest of “The Lychee Road” shows how mathematician Shande uses some of his probability skills in testing various ways to get the lychees from Lingnan to Chang’an. Along the way, Shande encounters principal chancellor Yang Guozhong (played by Andy Lau), based on the real Yang Guozhong, who want Shande to fail in this mission. Shande also runs into a lot of bureaucractic complications when he has to get several approvals from various government ministry departments.
“The Lychee Road” has certain ideas for Shande’s problem that have more logic than other ideas. Several bureaucrats and other people in power don’t want Shande to succeed because they know that if he succeeds, he will look smarter than they are, and they will be exposed as mediocre or incompetent hacks. Shande’s physical abilities and psychological stamina are put to the ultimate tests.
Shaoling appears from time to time, mostly to give advice to Shande. He tells Shande that the three most important things that he learned as an official are (1) Going with the flow; (2) Sharing the benefits; and (3) Lifting each other up. However, Shande finds out that no amount of diplomacy or sycophancy can get a corrupt enemy to change if that enemy is rotten to the core.
With mostly solid direction and a well-paced screenplay, “The Lychee Road” has some memorable adrenaline-charged action sequences and moments of levity. Shande learns the value of teamwork with people of different backgrounds. The friendship that develops between Shande and Liang is thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Shande becomes like a father figure to Yinu. Shande also earns the respect of Tong.
Although all the cast members in “The Lychee Road” show talent in their roles, Da’s performance as Shande is the heart and soul of the movie. Shande goes through every possible emotion in “The Lychee Road,” which takes viewers on this wild and engrossing journey with Shande. The most underdeveloped character is Shande’s spouse Yuting, who is a stereotypical “worried wife of the hero” for most of her screen time.
The movie’s gorgeous cinematography is stunning, while the visual effects and production design are also above-average. And although there’s plenty of high-octane action and life-threatening things that happen in the story, “The Lychee Road” has some of its greatest impact in the quieter scenes, where guilt and emotional devastation are harder to recover from than physical wounds and injuries.
CMC Pictures released “The Lychee Road” in select U.S. cinemas on July 25, 2025. The movie was released in China on July 18, 2025.