Chinas

As a Chinese woman, I found this film to be a profoundly uncomfortable experience-not because it was poorly made, but because it hit so close to home. Many of the scenarios depicted in the movie, to varying degrees, have occurred in my own family. The emotional weight of watching those moments unfold on screen was both unsettling and thought-provoking. While the film undeniably leans into certain stereotypes about Chinese families, I have to admit that these stereotypes are rooted in truth. They reflect dynamics and patterns that are deeply ingrained in our culture, making the portrayal feel painfully authentic.

What impressed me the most was the fact that the director is not Chinese but Spanish. For someone from an entirely different cultural background to capture the intricacies, the emotional undercurrents, and the often-unspoken tensions of a Chinese family so accurately is truly remarkable. It's not an easy task to represent another culture with such depth and sensitivity, and yet this film does it with surprising precision.

This made me reflect on how universal some of these family dynamics might be, even if they manifest differently in other cultures. At the same time, it was a stark reminder of how specific cultural traditions and expectations can shape the lives of individuals within a family. Watching this movie felt like holding up a mirror to my own experiences, and while it was uncomfortable, it was also a powerful and moving experience. This film is a testament to the power of cinema to transcend cultural barriers and touch something profoundly human.

It is set in our time, in Madrid, in the modest neighborhood of Usera, one of the neighborhoods in the capital of Spain where multiculturalism is common, and it is easy to see in its streets people whose origins (or those of their parents) are or have been in Asia, Africa or Latin America. In this context we meet (although there will be some other tangential story, interconnected with the two main ones) two families: one, that of little Lucía, about 9 years old, and her sister Claudia, a teenager, who live with their parents, Chinese immigrants who run a bazaar where they spend many hours throughout the day; and the other is that of little Xiang, also 9 years old, adopted by a Spanish couple: Leonor Watling, Pablo Molinero. At a school, two 9-year-old Chinese girls meet at the beginning of the course. Everyone assumes that they will become friends, but absolutely nothing brings them together. The first two girls have serious problems with their parents, who want, against both of their opinions, that they remain within the ancient Chinese culture; The problem of the third, the adopted one, is that her adoptive mother believes she senses that the psychological problems that the girl presents are related to her need to search for her Chinese roots.

An agreeable movie that shows the peculiar lives of some little girls and adolescents by exposing cultures and communities with the necessary example of the Chinese community in Spain. Four Goya nominations, including best leading actress and breakthrough actress, for this luminous drama, with some comedy overtones, in which Atrantxa Echevarria, winner of the Goya for best new director for ¨Carmen y Lola¨ explores the search for identity of three girls of Chinese origin (Lucia, Xiang, Claudia) with totally different realities: Lucia, 9 years old, is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Xiang of the same age is an adopted girl with problems finding her identity and Claudia, a teenager, is Lucia's sister and the one who is most affected by racism and the cultural clash with her high school classmates. The three stories, as we say, advance, intersect, mix, interspersing the childhood but no less important problems of the two youngest children, with the sentimental and relational conflicts of the teenager, who wants to be like the others, does not want stay alone, and with this the only thing that will make things not go as she intended.

The little girls and the teenager: Shiman Yang , Xinyi Ye, Ella Qiu give acceptable and natural interpretations, well directed by the director, while the professional performers Leonor Watling, Pablo Molinero, Carolina Yuste and Belén Fabra show their interpretive abilities and their sufficient experience.

This engaging and passable account was well directed by Arantxa Echevarría, though accasionally over-dramatized in terms of filmmaking as well as performances and it becomes overlong: around 110 minutes and tiring. She previously made her successful film debut Carmen y Lola (2018) and Shorts as Don Enrique de Guzmán, De noche y de pronto , Yo Presidenta , El ultimo bus , Panchito , 7 from Etheria and a documentary : Cuestión de Pelotas. Being her second film La familia perfecta 2021 and following TV series as Días mejores (2 episodes) and El Cid . Rating : 6/10. It got several Awards , Goya nominations, and other prizes as well as nominations in various national and international festivals .

Superbly acted by all, including the little girls at the centre of the story, well directed and engaging to the end.

The clash of cultural traditions resulting in parental expectations constrain the ability of the young Chinese girl and her teenager sister to fit in their new environment as much as they could and want to. The shopkeeper parents' struggle to provide materially is a thread through the movie. Their apparent motivation behind migrating is to give their daughters a better life is stated, but their inability to let go of the cultural constraints hampers the daughters' starting their new life. The teenage daughter is an illustration of trying hard to fit into a new culture while being caught up in the wrong crowd to boot.

The parallel family of intellectuals who adopted a Chinese girl are stressed out while insisting on keeping her in both cultures, not necessarily to her satisfaction.

Full of pain and frustration, but a sociography and not a tearjerker, a movie well worth watching.