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.
