‘Girl’ Review: Shu Qi’s Directorial Debut Finds Heart in the Face of Grim Oppression [B] Venice
Acclaimed Hong Kong-Taiwanese actress Shu Qi (known for her arthouse and commercial films including The Assassin, Three Times and most recently Bi Gan’s Resurrection) makes her directorial debut with Girl, a quietly affecting, understated film that tackles troubled family dynamics, cycles of abuse and the sociocultural norms that imprison us for a lifetime.
Many films that handle domestic violence show victims understandably yearning for an escape, an exit from their misery and a better life in which they can finally take control over their own destiny. Yet, Girl shows none of that. In fact, its uniqueness lies in presenting characters for which that escape is almost impossible, sometimes even by choice. Beyond hopes for any escape, how do such victims deal with such an unavoidable reality? How do they find their own resistance, if it all, in a world that is apathetic to their pain? Perhaps resistance isn’t quite the answer, but rather co-existence with the physical and emotional agony.
But what if the oppressed also becomes, to some extent, an oppressor? Does that render them less worthy of our empathy just because they practice the very same violence inflicted on them? And how does emotional abuse compare to physical aggression? If the wounds heal in a few days, and the faces marked with bruised eyes that are scared to see the light gradually return to normal after several sleepless nights, does the psychological trauma ever go away? And how can one truly heal when they’re almost certain this will not be the last wound to be inflicted upon them?
The story unfolds in Taiwan in 1988, a time where the country was undergoing financial recession, and the lower class was being crushed with no end in sight. Amidst the economic turmoil, partly responsible for accelerating rates of domestic violence as breadwinners grapple with their helplessness, the film focuses on a troubled Taiwanese family. To call their dynamics dysfunctional would be an understatement – it is a family whose bonds have long been shattered. Having nowhere else to go, its members are forced to live under the same roof, but their tensions and recurring violence spell doom for any future the children may ever have.
At the center of the narrative is Hsiao-lee (wonderfully played by Lai Yu-Fei), the family’s eldest daughter who is already unable to come to terms with what’s going on at home: her father (Roy Chiu) returns drunk every night and tortures her mother while her younger sister cries in silence at the horrors they both witness. As a form of self defense, or perhaps her way of coping with such an ordeal, she sleeps in a colorful zip tent, placed in lieu of her bed, which she considers her refuge. Shadows of her father’s hand haunt her as she sees them placed on the tent and about to shatter her safe space, pushing further and further on the exteriors as if attempting to crush the one thing she has left in this world.
Hsiao-lee’s mother, Chuan (a heartbreaking Lai Yu-Fei), is both a victim of her husband’s physical and sexual abuse, but also a perpetrator of verbal and physical violence on her eldest daughter. Their relationship, which forms the emotional core of the film, is strained and as the narrative goes deeper, we see how Chuan fears Hsiao-lee will be repeat of her own life. Scared that her daughter will be forced, like she had been, to leave school and work at an early age to help support the family, especially with Hsiao-lee’s father on the verge of becoming jobless, she treats her harshly, confusing strictness with emotional abuse even though she herself suffers from it every night. When Hsiao-lee meets a new girl at school, a rebellious troublemaker who carries her same name, a new hope emerges – one that will have ramifications on the entire family.
Despite what Chuan goes through on a daily basis, with a drunken husband who will spare no effort in literally and figuratively destroying her life, she never considers leaving. The film cleverly and subtly examines the social, cultural and personal dynamics that pushes her to stay in the abusive marriage, and more importantly, how the apathy she witnessed from her parents and the violence she is subjected to by her husband are both exercised by her, the victim, on her eldest daughter, rendering the girl a victim of a victim. The blurry lines between victim and perpetrator is what makes Chuan such a fascinating character, one that gives the film a degree of novelty and elevates it beyond conventional social dramas.
Instead of tugging on our heartstrings with an overbearing score or long scenes of emotional breakdowns and confrontations, Shu Qi intentionally opts for a dry, matter-of-the-fact approach, which elevates the film beyond cheap sentimentalism. She keeps us at a distance, while letting her narrative unfold organically, allowing us to gradually get invested in the story without heavy-handed antics, common in such films. It is a smart creative choice because the film is already a hard watch, and the events happening on screen are harrowing enough on their own, that any needless or unwarranted dramatic escalations would have hindered the film’s eventual impact.
Some may call Girl miserabilist, especially with how grim it is, but reality can be much harder to fathom. Some children grow old while they’re still, like the film’s protagonist, merely ten. But what they’ve witnessed is a lifetime of suffering, enough to wrinkle their souls.
Grade: B
This review is from the 2025 Venice Film Festival. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.
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