B for Busy 2 (2024)

Good things, are felt in the heart

“Her” stories can sometimes feel like one step forward two steps back. With so many feminism themed stories, what makes Her Story special?

Grounded. Relatability. Chemistry.

First, Her Story found the right balance between our female leads’ strengths and weaknesses. As one of the quotes I read online before mentioned, “There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.” For a movie that’s character focused, half the battle is won when it has main leads whom we can relate to.

In Her Story, we are able to see Tie Mei’s capable sides - upright, honest, independent, forgiving, helpful and adaptable. We also see her cowardly sides - strong facade, bad temper, insensitive and unwilling to rely on others. Not only Tie Mei, other characters have multi dimensional facades that make audience relate to them. Ah Ye, though a hopeless romantic and has low self esteem due to family upbringing, is courageous in her pursuit of love. Sure, she is the friend that we will scold for giving attention to a guy that’s undeserving. But she is also honest with herself and always willing to take the first step in relationship. The last person who forms this stable triangle is Tie Mei’s young daughter, Mo Li. A little perceptive beyond her age, she is often able to point out the crutch of the issue in a few words. Though this child also has her moody, sensitive and more innocent side befitting of a child.

With such strong characters and great actresses portraying them, the other half of the battle comes the script and messaging of Her Story.

Remember the one step forward two steps back I mentioned at the beginning? I am glad Her Story is taking two and probably three steady steps forward - which I hope will be the wave that leads feminism themed story to a positive direction.

Her story openly explore and ask us whether we should question some of the common mindsets we have been holding for awhile now - the open talk about menstrual cycle, saying No firmly to behaviours you don’t like about sex, the shallow mindset of feminism that misses the mark, the “rule” of capitalism and pragmatism, being honest about your own experience and feeling, judging people when you aren’t in their shoes, as well as being our own harsh critics and prisoner.

These aren’t anything new or groundbreaking. And they sound like heavy, sensitive topics. But I love how Her Story raises them rightfully, carefully, heartwarmingly and wittily through the chemistry and love we feel Tie Mei, Ah Ye and Mo Li share. This gives a positive, forward momentum to face these common issues we face day to day.

I generally instinctively avoid heavy themed social stories because there are often more noises than groundbreaking insights among the opinions. Her Story feels special because it contains a level of grounded optimism and wit in delivering a feminism themed story. And so, this is Her Story, moving forward.
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“Because we are optimistic and confident enough, we thus can face tragedy head on”. ~ from Her Story
“因为我们足够乐观和自信，我们才能直面悲剧”. ~ 好东西

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What an enjoyable 2 hrs in the cinema! China's much wittier feminist film than Barbie

I believe my headline says it all. I was surrounded in the cinema by many Chinese women and we were all laughing out loud together because this is by far the best Chinese feminist film I have seen. Lots of feminist films stop at the awakening stage but this film deals with the post-awakening phase of feminism; what happens after you become this capable independent woman who's also a mother and who is a divorcee and you don't miss being married, what does this woman's life look like? It deals with themes of various styles of parenting, past trauma weighing on psychological and emotional wellbeing and behaviour, and the current dilemmas of current stage feminism and gender relations and its discourse on its effects on both men and women.

The trailer doesn't make much sense so this is the synopsis without spoilers: This is a 3 female leads "slice-of-life" film who are each a half generation apart and the tangled web of relationships between each other and the various men in their lives including ex-husbands, new lovers and friends.

I so thoroughly enjoyed it that I'm watching it for a second time this coming week. The question I have is - Did I enjoy it so much because it was in language and culture I understand and will some of those jokes that seem so culturally specific translate into jokes for others who do not speak the language nor have some understanding of the culture? If you notice, there's always somewhat of a discrepancy between the douban scores (china-based) and mydramalist (diaspora) scores with few exceptions.

In short, go watch this film! For any reason you can think of - for cultural study, for laughs, for fun, for language learning, for the witty dialogue, to support female writer-directors.

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