Rating: **** ½
This Taiwanese charmer by debutant director and co-writer Shih-Ching Tsou is a heartstealer which looks at the tough life of three women of different generations struggling to come to terms with their financial condition in Taipei .
There is the mother Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai) , the elder daughter I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) and the younger daughter I-Jing( Nina Ye).I-Jing is unmistakably the star of the show. We see the bustling colourful chaotic world around I-Jing, filled with a hustling population of groundlevel wage earners , as the 5-year old sees it. We even comprehend the chaos through I-Jing’s universe of school, home, shops and , yes, shoplifting.
As I-Jing ,Nina Ye makes us want to take her in our arms and cuddle her, provided she allows it. This girl has a mind of her own. I-Jing tries to understand why her mother and sister are constantly bickering , and why she must spend time with her grandparents who clearly disapprove of her for being left-handed.
I-Jing’s efforts to get rid of her “devilish” hand are serio-comic : only a child can manoeuvre through the snarls of adult beliefs with such surrender. Then there is her complicated relationship with her elder sister I-Ann, old enough to be her mother and yet filled with youthful rage that she often vents on her baby sister.
It is a tricky world of selfdeception and caustic relationships made bearable by bouts of kindness that the the female family encounters all around them. Director Shih-Ching Tsou weaves through the complex web of interpersonal affections with a disarming mix of wonderment and certainty. He allows the family of mother and two daughters to stumble and grow in their new environment, keeping a distance from their actions , ensuring that they are not crowded with attention, but at the same time ensuring they do not get lost in a world that doesn’t welcome drifters and migrants easily.
Curiously India’s shortlisted Oscar entry Homebound is also about migration, though in a very different cultural and emotional contest.
