What an enjoyable 2 hrs in the cinema! China's much wittier feminist film than Barbie
I believe my headline says it all. I was surrounded in the cinema by many Chinese women and we were all laughing out loud together because this is by far the best Chinese feminist film I have seen. Lots of feminist films stop at the awakening stage but this film deals with the post-awakening phase of feminism; what happens after you become this capable independent woman who's also a mother and who is a divorcee and you don't miss being married, what does this woman's life look like? It deals with themes of various styles of parenting, past trauma weighing on psychological and emotional wellbeing and behaviour, and the current dilemmas of current stage feminism and gender relations and its discourse on its effects on both men and women.The trailer doesn't make much sense so this is the synopsis without spoilers: This is a 3 female leads "slice-of-life" film who are each a half generation apart and the tangled web of relationships between each other and the various men in their lives including ex-husbands, new lovers and friends.
I so thoroughly enjoyed it that I'm watching it for a second time this coming week. The question I have is - Did I enjoy it so much because it was in language and culture I understand and will some of those jokes that seem so culturally specific translate into jokes for others who do not speak the language nor have some understanding of the culture? If you notice, there's always somewhat of a discrepancy between the douban scores (china-based) and mydramalist (diaspora) scores with few exceptions.
In short, go watch this film! For any reason you can think of - for cultural study, for laughs, for fun, for language learning, for the witty dialogue, to support female writer-directors.
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Magical realism letter time-travel drama that is worth your time
Our offspring our strangers to us in the future and our parents are strangers to us in the past.This little gem of a chinese drama series is well worth the small investment of time (only 12 episodes). I have been trying to figure out why it is unusual. And I think I've settled on this as the main reason - that it shows very clearly the truism of the fact that our offspring our strangers to us in the future and our parents are strangers to us in the past. If you could change your parent's past, would you?
I think it is also unusual because in a sea of polarising genres of either shamelessly shallow idol dramas or full on police crime dramas, this thoughtful and deep drama explores the harshness and brutality of certain parts of rural China (in the 90s and quite possible even now) without being a police crime drama. Trigger warning- there is exploration of familial abuse, triad gang war and small town thinking. The closest TV series I can think of that does a similar thing is Nobody Knows, but that drama had significant police-crime plot line. There is no doubt where the emphasis is in this drama - on the young coming of age couple in the early 90s living in a small town.
It is also unusual also because of its beautiful cinematography and the treatment each side character gets to tell the fully-orbed story. I thoroughly enjoyed the breadth and depth of each character and only wish a longer series could have been written - perhaps exploring more of the thoughts and feelings of the offspring as they discover more of their parent's past. Another follow-up series wouldn't be out of place when the series is this good!
As it is, I felt like a lot of Chinese series, the ending left rather a lot to be desired. It is a source of mystery to me that Chinese dramaland simply cannot deliver a Chinese series without some sort of deflation-of-souffle- ending. Seriously, why not? If only...
The acting on the other hand is stellar. I think most people will be blown away by the two young actors and I have come across many who have said this is Zhou Yiran's best work yet. I quite agree. I believed every moment. It helps when the character is written so well!
This drama was a real gift for christmas 2025.
P.s. On that note, couldn't they have released it 2026 to make it fit the timing in the drama?
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