Hao dong xi

At the Berlin screening, the audience was 99% Chinese, with 95% of them being women. Walking out of the cinema with my friend, I just felt utterly refreshed. It's been a long time since I felt, "I paid for the ticket and truly got an excellent experience in return."

The film isn't perfect-there are moments where you wonder if it's not deep enough, or if its structure feels limited, loose, and incomplete. Yet, that doesn't take away from the fact that it's light, joyful, and entirely comfortable-what a rare and precious quality that is. Every ten minutes you'll laugh along with other audience. It talks about feminism and women's self-discovery, but it doesn't feel detached from real life or overly dramatic. Neither does it rely on empty theories. Unlike some films, it doesn't give you the impression that the director is portraying an imagined version of life, but rather something genuine and relatable.

Her Story is the kind of film where the three main characters - single mother Tiemei, her young daughter Moli and their neighbour Xiao Ye - get to talk about the experience of a first period for several minutes while a couple of male characters sit and listen without objection. It ALSO happens to be the kind of a film which topped the PRC box office for two weeks in a row.

Thus, I suspect it might be impossible for an outsider to understand the modern PRC without knowing it's now the kind of society which enthusiastically votes with their yuan for a film so feminist it makes something like Barbie or Wicked pale in comparison. Her Story gleefully namedrops the patriarchy, male privilege and structural oppression - and those are the parts which are played for laughs, as this rhetoric mainly comes from Tiemei's ex-husband. He believes this would impress her enough that she takes him back, yet it's quite transparent he doesn't really miss her as much as he misses the easy life when she was the perennially tired breadwinner.

Indeed, the truly refreshing thing about Her Story is that the romantic matters, while present, (and responsible for a good number of jokes) take a DECISIVE backseat to more prosaic concerns of Tiemei's work and the struggle to give her daughter the best start in life. This is such a massive contrast to even acclaimed Western cinema like Challengers, which did the exact opposite and where Tashi's daughter (about the same age as Tiemei's) barely registered even as an afterthought.

Here, we get a FAR more honest portrayal of what is likely to occupy the mind of a mother - from Moli's struggle to fit in with her peers from more privileged backgrounds, to her attempt to find herself in music (ultimately the dominant narrative thread) to health concerns over her eyesight. At the same time, Tiemei has to transition from being a journalist to an editor of women's magazine, when the struggles of running a profitable digital publication are seemingly as acute in the PRC as in the West.

On the other hand, the younger Xiao Ye seemingly has a more upbeat life less burdened with responsibilities - yet, as she grows closer to Tiemei and begins to take over some responsibilities of caring for Moli, we get a window into her own struggles. The conversations the three have over topics such as the meaning of a "white lie" can be surprisingly long and are often very revealing - while also managing to remain funny in a genuine way.

The only reason I'm not rating it even higher is because I saw this about a month ago, and I have to admit that in that time, some of its emotional resonance had already faded. Nevertheless, this is a definite recommendation.

Having this week sat through the turgidly bad Kraven the Hunter my faith in awesome filmmaking has been fully restored by Yihui Shao's outstanding writing and directing.

Of course her creation could well have been spoiled if the actors had been failing in their performances but thankfully ALL the actors are magnificent and do Shao's script proud.

It's one of those rare movies were its impossible to select an outstanding performance and I cannot separate the three female leads, I suppose I have to heap praise on Ms. Isabella Zeng merely because the performance from one so young is astonishing.

I'm from the UK but live in Asia so I see lots of movies from India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and China and I have to say the majority of the films I watch (at least 6 a month) are better than so called Hollywood productions in many aspects.

I'm only sorry the majority of cinema goers in the West will not get to view this touching, heart warming, thoughtful, provocative, brilliant movie.

Delightful movie that brings up serious topics about expectations from both society and from people themselves, without being somber or bringing in antagonists. All the characters are very mature, and shine through how they introspect and deal with their own issues.

Although the main topic woven through the plot is feminism, the film shows us similarities to expectations about talent, relationships, parenthood and school. How the characters grow around these topics is the real substance of the movie, and it's put together in a way that balances humor and substance well.

What's really bolding this back though, is that there are a few moments were the writer/director let themselves get carried away and we get characters essentially dictating what we are supposed to think in that moment. This is unnecessary as the movie was already getting us to think about these topics, and it really whiplashes you out of the movie at those points.

This even happens with the Shanghai location: at some point we see her walk past the Sihang storehouse full with bullet holes from where the legendary RoC company made their last stand against the Japanese, and the dad says something about not making noodles much because they're southerners. But then later the mom just says "we live in Shanghai" to her own daughter.

Overall definitely recommend, very uplifting and likeable for a large variety of audiences.

Giving this an 8/10 rating

This is a super film from writer director Yihui Shao, which has been so popular that every showing has sold out, I finally managed a seat today and it was well worth it, this might be the best film from China this year, so I do recommend it.

This drama about a parent and daughter, the next door neighbour female trio has everything, soul searching, plenty of laughs, full on great story and acting, some very good looking shots too. Jia Song, Elane Zhong and Isabella Zeng are the main three who are on full on top form with the juicy script that is just full of delight, Zeng really steals the film and holds her own. The men are not left out, Mark Chao and Yu Zhang deliver as well, and are just plain out and out funny, and given the situations for all involved, you just have to follow the madness of the ups and downs of the cast.

As this is spoiler free, I can't write anything more on the plot, but it is such a well made film I do say it was worth seeing and worth the wait.