EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2025: Girl (dir. Qi Shu) | Review
In her stark and stirring directorial debut Girl, Shu Qi delivers a haunting portrait of girlhood shaped by violence, resilience, and the quiet, defiant search for freedom in 1980s Taipei.
Film festival goers queued up early for the 10 am screening of the Taiwanese film Girl, despite the weather being at its most cruel in the beautiful city of Toruń, Poland. This film is the only Taiwanese entry in the director’s debut competition. Girl is directed by actress turned director Shu Qi who chooses to tell a story — a potent coming-of-age drama set in 1980s Taipei. The story explores the harrowing life of Hsiao Lee, a teenage girl trapped in a cycle of poverty, abuse, and neglect within a dysfunctional family.
In 1980s Taipei, ten-year-old Hsiao-lee leads a bleak daily life, coming home to her weary mother’s disdain and seeking refuge each night in a zip-up closet to escape her father’s drunken violence. Everything shifts when Li-li, an outgoing and sharp-witted transfer student recently returned from the US after her parents’ divorce, arrives in Hsiao-lee’s class. Li-li quickly breaks through Hsiao-lee’s guarded nature, and the two become close friends. One day, Li-li convinces Hsiao-lee to skip school and explore the city together, setting off a family conflict that forever alters Hsiao-lee’s world.
With this film, Shu Qi, lets us know that she is serious about story telling, layering the story with an unflinching look at patriarchal violence and the struggle for personal freedom.
Though the mood set for the film is sombre, feels bleak and at times difficult to watch, but it resonates as a heartfelt and visually expressive examination of girlhood under duress and the tentative first steps toward survival and redemption.
In terms of cinematography, the film excels in capturing the oppressive heat and stifling atmosphere of a Taiwanese summer, with Yu Jing-Pin’s dynamic but restrained visuals emphasizing wide and medium shots that reflect Hsiao Lee’s isolation and internal turmoil. The muted colour palette and cluttered, authentic set design reinforce the bleakness of the protagonist’s environment, creating a visually immersive experience that mirrors the emotional weight on screen. The acting is also very compelling and is the crux of the narrative in the film. Hsiao Lee’s stoic endurance is portrayed with subtlety and emotional depth conveying the character’s resilience and pain without overt dramatization. The supporting cast, including her mother and sister, contribute to the tense domestic atmosphere, with moments that illustrate multi-layered familial dysfunction and fractured maternal instincts.
Overall, Girl showcases strong visual storytelling and committed acting performances which underscore its serious themes, marking a promising start as a director for Shu Qi.
