Her Story

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.

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.

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.

The film explores the modern day challenges of women in China and especially being a single mother. On a deeper level, it explores the ability for women to courageously live the life they wish to live. The expectations placed upon them and the relationships between mothers and daughters, and between women and 'womanhood'. Extrapolate this out though it's also about people in general living within the confines of social expectations set for them instead of chasing after the things that bring them joy - and the real costs of that.

Every so often a movie leaves me with thoughts and feelings beyond the plot that makes me want to watch it again. This is one of them.

The movie feels like a kindhearted friend telling you stories about ups and downs realities of a life well lived. I found myself laughing and crying with the characters and entranced by the connections, chemistries that they shared.

Unclear to me though if watching as a non-mandarin speaker will be able to understand the nuances of what's said.

If I have one complaint about the film it would be that it tried to tackle too many themes. Because of that points it felt like some of the commentary was a bit shallow. Nonetheless, it still got me thinking and apparently now writing about it.

This is a movie which require no acting skill ,no story and no character development. All the lines were execute fast like AI by actor. Director wish to tell her own girl's power golden Internet words to the audience. Most of the scene were a few people gathering,speak the golden lines for10min and combine into 2hr movie.

I feel amused by the audience reactions to the movie. They excitedly repeat and acknowledge the golden line which the actor said.

I feel sad by its high rating over to most of my favorite classics movie cause I not consider this as a movie. A China version of Barbie movie but without entertainment value and acting skill.