\n
![](\"https:\/\/cdn.craft.cloud\/26ed9c78-feb7-4ee6-8ddf-262fd7bafb2d\/assets\/tco\/images\/Nu%CC%88hai-Girl-Shu-Qi.jpg\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
In teenage dramas the lesson of the classroom often sets the tone, so when Hsiao-Lee\u2019s (Bai Xiao-Ying) teacher asks his students to spell \u200b\u201c<\/span>malaise\u201d, the feeling of unease spreads into the entirety of Shu Qi\u2019s debut feature\u00a0<\/span>Girl (N\u00fchai).<\/i> In this moment Hsiao-Lee, the <\/span>Girl<\/span><\/i> in question, haunts the doorway of her classroom as she does every scene of the film. As she faces daily abuse from her drunk step-father (Roy Chiu) and struggling mother (Joanne Tang Yu-chi also known as singer 9<\/span>m88<\/span>), while helping to raise her much livelier younger sister (Yu-Fei Lai), it is no wonder that she appears despondent.\u00a0<\/span>Girl<\/i> follows the sombre Hsaoi-Lee as she navigates a\u00a0routine of domestic chores, school life and consistent abuse. It\u2019s only when a\u00a0new friend, Li-Li (Audrey Lin) comes into her life that Hsaoi-Lee learns how to\u00a0rebel.<\/span><\/p>\n Shu Qi, the Hong-Kong-Taiwanese actor whose career was elevated from the Category III<\/span> films of her early years to becoming the muse of Hou Hsiao-Hsien \u2013 starring in\u00a0<\/span>Millenium Mambo<\/i> and\u00a0<\/span>The Assassin \u2013<\/i> has turned her attention to filmmaking after 30<\/span>\u00a0years in the industry. Perhaps it is her unique journey from lascivious b\u2011movies to Taiwanese New Wave darling that gives Shu Qi the bravery to deliver this bold decisive debut, that while following a\u00a0well trodden path, with its focus on childhood trauma, manages to forge its own\u00a0track.<\/span><\/p>\n Drawing direct inspiration from Shu Qi\u2019s own childhood, combined with Qi\u2019s experience in the industry and decades of reflection, the new director practices restraint, and\u00a0<\/span>Girl<\/i> refuses to tug at the audience\u2019s heart strings. Qi has carefully selected every moment, whether that be her father\u2019s drunken rage or her mother\u2019s disproportionate punishments inflicted on Hsiao-Lee. While some of the domestic violence is delivered with unflinching precision, there is much deliberately left off-screen. When Hsiao-Lee\u2019s father turns his abusive attention to Hsiao-Lee, Shu Qi opts for childlike terrible fantasy, making the unseen, unsaid horrors of her life more arresting than if\u00a0<\/span>Girl\u00a0<\/i>had resorted to the triggering reconstructions of a\u00a0conventional drama.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While girls \u2013 sister, friend and mother included \u2013 are Shu Qi\u2019s focus as the actions of men affect the lives of each of them, she is careful not to tar the alcoholic father with a\u00a0single brush. Although his brutish behaviour dominates the household, he is in addiction\u2019s vice-like grasp. Similarly, Hsaoi-Lee\u2019s abused mother is no saint, passing on violence as she fails to comprehend what is being done to her.\u00a0<\/span>Girl<\/i> offers no easy answers, making for an uncomfortable, invaluable watch.<\/span><\/p>\n Girl<\/i> is markedly different from today\u2019s many trauma tales, which often opt for realism for their depictions of abuse. In part due to cinematographer Yu Jing-Pin\u2019s lavish saturation, creating a\u00a0film simultaneously gorgeous and discomforting. While the cheap synthetic blues and greens in Hsiao-Lee\u2019s world are heightened, this same effect makes the skin of each family member appear sallow, as if their troubled home is itself spreading disease. This use of colour is brought into sharp contrast when the gradient shifts to natural look for the film\u2019s final act, in which the girls, now women, are no longer forced to compete with the interior d\u00e9cor, their skin finally looks alive. What makes\u00a0<\/span>Girl\u00a0<\/i>so special is Shu Qi\u2019s imaginative approach to the craft, often opting for the abstract over a\u00a0linear retelling, proving herself to be a\u00a0filmmaker with a\u00a0unique eye.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n