High school days are usually associated with the prime of adolescence and the naiveté of youth.

But a poignant and thought-provoking short film gives it a different spin as its characters who have passed on regain their youth and meet once again in the classroom.

Uploaded by Malaysian YouTube channel The Scope, Zai Jian (or Goodbye) was published two years ago on May 19, 2016.

Here's the film:

The eight-minute video has come under the spotlight again, as the English version of the comic it was based on was recently shared to Facebook.

Here's the comic, which was originally only available in Chinese:

Waiting for his classmates to pass on

If you haven't read/ watched the comic or film, here's a quick summary that doesn't really do it justice.

Ling, an elderly man, passes away peacefully on a chair.

Upon waking up, he finds himself as a teenager in his high school again.

He sees his old classmate Doug, who has been waiting for him for a long time.

Doug reveals that he was the first in class to pass away, and jokingly asks Ling about what he ate to give him a long and healthy life.

Three hours left

Subsequently, Doug informs Ling that he only has three hours left in the school before he moves on.

All the other classmates have come and left, and Ling was the last to arrive.

When the two friends were wondering why they were transported back to their high school days, Doug surmised, "Maybe it's because we were at our prime, and the beginning of our dreams."

When Ling was unsure of how to make use of his three hours, Doug starts to tell him about the rest of their classmates.

Jenny, for example, regretted never pursuing a singing career, and spent her three hours holding a private concert:

Wong Ming, who became a business man, saw the failure of his business and started gambling, thus spiralling into debt.

His family fell apart because of that.

In the afterlife, he simply lay down on the field to savour the feeling of being at peace.

May, however, carried her regrets into the afterlife.

After getting pregnant at a young age, she dropped out of school and lived a hard life.

Looking back at the decisions she made, May spent her three hours crying.

And perhaps the most heartwarming story was from Jun Kiet, who suffered from paralysis after getting a stroke.

After regaining his healthy and youth, he ran around the school for three hours, screaming at the top of his lungs.

As for what Ling did, and what happened after his three hours were up, watch the film.

Top image via The Scope/ YouTube