GIRL

In late 1980s Taiwan, Xiaoli, a shy adolescent growing up in a household defined by emotional distance and suppression. Living for long periods in silence and unease, she gradually internalizes a sense of powerlessness over her own circumstances.

The film draws from Shu Qi’s personal childhood experiences as its narrative foundation, transforming fragments such as running away from home at around age fifteen, living with an alcoholic father, and the residual shadows of domestic violence into the emotional core of the story. In doing so, personal memory and fictional character intertwine, forming a narrative structure imbued with the texture of recollection.

It is only when Xiaoli meets Lili, a lively and free-spirited girl, that a faint crack appears in her enclosed world, allowing her, for the first time, to perceive color and possibility in life. Yet beyond this brief illumination, long-suppressed trauma and cycles of silent violence within the family gradually resurface, forcing her to confront inherited emotional patterns and unseen pressures across generations.

Visually, the film continues a restrained and delicate aesthetic, using fragmented narration and an understated rhythm to express the protagonist’s psychological flow and process of maturation. Shu Qi’s filmmaking is also deeply influenced by the cinematic sensibility of Hou Hsiao-hsien, particularly echoing MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001), creating a layered interplay between memory and the present.

Director: Shu Qi

Producer: Yeh Jufeng

Cast: Bai Xiao-Ying, Roy Chiu, 9m88, Audrey Lin

Additional Screening: