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The Unseen Sister had a strong cast featuring Zhao Li Ying, Xin Zhi Lei, and Huang Jue. Two sisters with a secret end up in a cycle of blackmail and betrayal.
Qiao Yan is a successful actress with an overly clingy manager. She’s rigidly unhappy and desperately seeking her freedom from the life she’s living. Her manager has other plans for her future and is unwilling to take no for an answer. Into this abyss her pregnant sister from Myanmar walks in. Her sister is looking for her deadbeat husband who is trying to escape his gambling debts. Due to Qiao’s secret slipping out, a long list of people line up to extort an exorbitant amount of money from her. Qiao will have to decide how far she’s willing to go to protect herself.
The characters were thinly and inconsistently written. The old, “if I’d had the opportunities you had, I’d be a famous actress and wealthy instead of you,” trope was used because yeah, life just works that way. Anyone can become rich and famous. That petulant phrase was overused. The older sister’s emotions and ethics swung back and forth like a pendulum. Her husband was utterly vile and made me wonder why she stayed with him.
What actually intrigued me about this film was that the entertainment industry was shown to be a patriarchal, capitalistic den of iniquity where wealthy men thought they owned the talent and could do what they wanted with them. I’d heard rumors about this type of behavior for years, just never thought I’d see a Chinese movie airing that dirty laundry. (I write this knowing Hollywood has had its issues, too. It’s always a problem when people hold unchecked power.) They also showed the negative side of the “one child” rule. Another shocker.
The story itself was uneven and dragged on too long. The actors did the best they could with the material. The movie Qiao was shooting gave Zhao Li Ying more of a chance to shine than the actual movie she was in. The Unseen Sister was watchable, but could have been better.
20 August 2025
Triggers: Lots of smoking if that bothers you
Attempted Sexual Assault
Dismembered finger
Qiao Yan is a successful actress with an overly clingy manager. She’s rigidly unhappy and desperately seeking her freedom from the life she’s living. Her manager has other plans for her future and is unwilling to take no for an answer. Into this abyss her pregnant sister from Myanmar walks in. Her sister is looking for her deadbeat husband who is trying to escape his gambling debts. Due to Qiao’s secret slipping out, a long list of people line up to extort an exorbitant amount of money from her. Qiao will have to decide how far she’s willing to go to protect herself.
The characters were thinly and inconsistently written. The old, “if I’d had the opportunities you had, I’d be a famous actress and wealthy instead of you,” trope was used because yeah, life just works that way. Anyone can become rich and famous. That petulant phrase was overused. The older sister’s emotions and ethics swung back and forth like a pendulum. Her husband was utterly vile and made me wonder why she stayed with him.
What actually intrigued me about this film was that the entertainment industry was shown to be a patriarchal, capitalistic den of iniquity where wealthy men thought they owned the talent and could do what they wanted with them. I’d heard rumors about this type of behavior for years, just never thought I’d see a Chinese movie airing that dirty laundry. (I write this knowing Hollywood has had its issues, too. It’s always a problem when people hold unchecked power.) They also showed the negative side of the “one child” rule. Another shocker.
The story itself was uneven and dragged on too long. The actors did the best they could with the material. The movie Qiao was shooting gave Zhao Li Ying more of a chance to shine than the actual movie she was in. The Unseen Sister was watchable, but could have been better.
20 August 2025
Triggers: Lots of smoking if that bothers you
Attempted Sexual Assault
Dismembered finger
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