American Girl

source: Mei guo nu hai

"Unlike THE FALLS's glossy patina and beneficent ideation, AMERICAN GIRL goes for the jugular in dissecting a nuclear family's internecine strife and support, with a sideswipe leveling at Taiwan education system's approbation of the outmoded corporal punishment. Fen's "American girl" tag is more a source of discrimination than something she can boast of, one of the examples evince Roan's crystal-clear discernment of Fen's predicament. Dexterously shot by Giorgos Valsamis within finite space, AMERICAN GIRL's cinematography reflects an alluring veracity on top of a rich textural substrate, it helps to ease its audience into the the family's early 2000 milieu like a charm. Tellingly, one cannot over-stress the accomplishment of the cast, especially Lam and Fan, grappling with the heavy-lifting with cracking efficacy and potency, Lam's pent-up emotion crackles consistently from scene to scene whereas Fan pulls off the cardinal challenge where a misty-eyed Fen communing with an intractable white horse like a real pro." read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, please google it, thanks.

This film is exactly what it's like. Most accurate depiction of mother daughter relationship i've seen on film thus far. Extremely well written, draws you in. I cried many times. It's just so well done it's so moving PLEASE WATCH.

TL;DR: I cried the entire movie and am thankful for having the opportunity to see this film and the story it shared. SHORT NOTE: The important parts of this movie for me were some of the smaller conversations. Some say that the film is slow, but I hope as a watcher you decide to notice the small details of these characters. The non-verbal communication is so crucial to this story. The slow pace is purposeful to draw out the emotions in each character. Full review (contains examples but not spoilers of the film): We may all try to step into the shoes of the protagonist and watch this story as if it were our own. Instead, I felt like these were my shoes being walked in by someone else. I do want to clarify that Fen's story is different from mine, but there is a lot of overlap and a deep connection to how everything is told. My own mother was always weak and sick ever since I can remember. We sometimes had discussions about her being ill and the "what-if" questions about death. I recall the fights my parents had about it, money, and more. I appreciate the ability of this film to show these perspectives. Even the feelings and emotions we regret having, the ones we try to ignore and forget. Fen does not shy from showing the honest and hurtful words that end up being used against your loved ones. The conversations these characters have are so accurate to the struggles of communicating during hard times. Each family member has their own legitimate concerns, but it feels like a war of who's in more pain. You can see it in their eyes, the sighs in their breath, and the attempts of them trying to say more. Watching this movie, you get a third perspective on the family and their actions. Wishing that if they would all communicate more that everything would be better. Not the case. There is one scene in particular that sticks out to me. The scene of them entering a westernized diner to me is like a dream. Primarily because everything takes a pause. All their problems are left at the door before they enter this place. Fen gets to feel like she's back in the U. S. again, while, Ann gets the ice cream she has been longing for from Dairy Queen. Even the mother gets a small victory of being able to reconnect with her daughters. She lets her kids get anything on the menu, even though we're aware she doesn't have much to spend. We get to clearly see this mother is trying her best and would do anything for her children (that's within her power). Sadly, outside of this scene Fen believes her mother "can do better". But given the third perspective from Ting, she responds by asking "what if this is her best"? As a kid, like Fen, I often found it difficult to still feel listened to when our problems were less that of our parents. However, our ignorance gets the best of us, and sadly and we hurt each other more than we need. This story felt personal to me and I appreciate the writers/directors and cast for telling such a good story in such an honest way.

Spoiler alert: The story starts with a solid premise but the emotionality never caught up. Truth be told I couldn't make it past the half way mark because the main character was too annoying. Good acting but the script presented her aloofness and indifference to her mothers diagnosis as an egotistical reflection of her "Americanness". No matter how she hated leaving her friends and life in America there is a huge chasm to bridge to her stoicism towards her mother, even when her sister asked if mom was going to die. The film did not fully explain this part and makes it very difficult to pin it on teenage angst or separation anxiety with her friends. Yes, it's a huge change but hardly anyone would go and blame another for having cancer. This film had potential but lacked character development to sustain the premise.

As reviewer ks-60500 pointed out, it's quite painful to watch two children from the parents totally looked so different from them without any possible genetic trace appeared on these two young daughters. The kids looked more like adopted or more like foster kids. The screenplay also got many flaws albeit the snail-crawling like pace. The education system in Taiwan nowadays severely prohibits any harsh punishment from the teachers to their students. Whipping punishment has been forbidden and considered a crime punishable by Taiwanese civil law. Yet this film still ridiculously showed such illegal punishment done by the teacher to the students. That female teacher in this movie is not a teacher but a thug-like monstrous, completely unqualified, uneducated fat ganster woman who was cast just for the purpose to worsen the horrible classroom nightmare for the female kid students. This screenplay shown us is so weak and boring as always and often from Taiwan. The writer seemed to completely ignorant about the immigration status between US and Taiwan. It just conveniently crafted to suit its writer to build a family and society situation but completely unrealistic. The dialogue also felt very unnatural and pretentious, a typical Taiwanese screenplay writers problem that never had been improved so far.

I loved the film scenery and background of this story, I felt deeply connected with the characters and understanded the emotions they were going through in each scene.

I just so loved the plot and narration. Each of the characters did justice to their roles and it all just came out to perfection. A perfect blend of emotions, family bond, sibling love, social and surrounding situations and a lot more.

American Girl with Seven Nominations at the Golden Horse Awards In fact, there is not much innovation in the structure of the story. It also happens to be almost the time when I want to go out of society. The time point of experiencing a SARS Said to be some nostalgic props scenes and music (such as Jay Chou's music) I personally think it's still too little resonant Also because of the current living environment It still exists to this day Honestly Jay Chou's old songs The song was really annoying to hear in Taiwan back then Now in China, every capital is a classic song Songs or covers can be heard everywhere But in fact, at that time we I've heard it for a long time without feeling (even forgot the names of many songs) Although the starting point is the perception of a big girl Meet friends from studying in the United States I have to go back to Taiwan to start a new life In fact, even my friends are like this Most are unwilling And the Chinese in the past were able to have friends Or finally can be integrated into some groups I really don't want to start over again (friends also mentioned their feelings back then) Most are still marginalized in the United States And when you come back to Taiwan, you will be punished by Taiwanese people. The Difficulty of Thinking You're Self-righteous When You Come Back from the U. S. Going to the United States to really rich people? The elders who passed away when I was a child It's also a blank past and started to do it with nothing. There are not many surprises in the acting of the little girl in the play Or rely on Lin Jiaxin's acting tension to string other people's performances The plot part is actually a problem that everyone will encounter The relationship between husband and wife gets along to maintain the whole family How to deal with the relationship with the child I also chose the time when the child just entered the rebellious period How do children view this home? Express your ideas in a way that contradicts your parents The ending is a little too fast There is no space for people to extend their imagination.

Very ordinary story that everyone would experience, yet no resonance would be generated with audiences due to the extreme annoying performances of the actress. Acting as a mom, the actress was being unrealistically emotional that would make audience wonder if she is acting an psychotic patient as well. Simple and common plot + slow pace story telling style by director + insensible performance by actress = surely not worth your time.