The Girl Who Stole Time, also known as Endless Journey of Love () is a 2025 Chinese animated fantasy adventure film written and directed by Yu Ao and Zhou Tienan. The story follows Qian Xiao, a young girl who accidentally obtains an artifact giving her the ability to control time, making her the new target of a powerful criminal organization determined to take it back.
Premise Qian Xiao, a cheerful girl from a fishing village, gets a mysterious pendant called the Time Dial, which gives her the power to control time. That power draws danger, including Seventeen, a cold-faced assassin, and when their paths collide, an adventure begins.
Voice cast Voice actorCharacterNotesKarry WangSeventeenCold-faced assassinLiu XiaoyuQian XiaoFishing village girlZhou ShenAmuAspiring directorHuang BoGuardian of the Time WheelJia BingBoss WanCrime bossMa DongMaster JiuJin JingMama Jin / Elderly woman from the fishing village / Clothing shop ownerZhou TienanCrime bossYan PeilunGrandpa Yan / Second-in-command of the Alley / Ice cream shop owner / Mermaid captorZhang XiaowanNineAssassinLiu YangTenAssassinLuo ShengdengBrother Deng of the Metropolis / Champion of JusticeXuan XiaomingMaster ScarFishing village arts and culture workerCao XueHeartthrobMovie star of the MetropolisPeng EnyiUnscrupulous paddle steamer merchantLiang ShengSaekiLeader of the assassin organizationHe ZiqianLittle boy with ice cream
Production Endless Journey of Love claims to be the industry’s first fully cloud-produced animated film, using Maoyan’s cloud production platform; the producers said more than 70% of the production workload, and 100% of rendering and data storage, were completed in the cloud. Cloud workflows reduced setup time for outside vendors and made it possible to do many more visual iterations on scenes such as lighting changes, the whale sequence, and the ship-through-waves shot.
The project took about five years from scriptwriting through dubbing, and was built across more than 2,000 shots.
Animation The film was produced by Maoyan Pictures and co-produced by Bu Xi Animation. It was created through a distributed production model involving over 70 collaborating teams and more than 1,000 artists, all connected through the same cloud-based pipeline.
Music The original score was composed by Beijing-based composer Luan Hui, while two original songs were written by the pop music composer and producer Qian Lei.
Dreaming of You (梦见你), sung by Zhou Shen (who also voices the character Amu), was the film’s theme song, released on May 26, 2025. I Only Wish (我只愿), sung by Liu Yuning, was released 4 days later.
Release The film was released theatrically in China on May 30, 2025.
In February 2025, ahead of the Chinese release, Fortissimo Films acquired worldwide sales rights for the film (excluding China), launching sales at the European Film Market. The film was released in several film festivals, including the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, yet never received a standard release outside of China.
The film's lack of a major overseas release coincided with the international success of Ne Zha 2, another animated family film, which became the highest-grossing film of 2025 and the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time.
Reception Box office The film grossed a total of US$27.9 million (¥189 million) in 62 days.
Accolades At the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival, the film won a Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation for Best Animated Feature. In September 2025, it was nominated for the Best Animated Film award by the jury at the 38th China Film Golden Rooster Awards. In October, it won the Silver Award for Best Animated Feature Film (Domestic) at the 17th Xiamen International Animation Festival's "Golden Dolphin Award".
It was also part of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025 lineup.
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