superborb

tl;dr Cried buckets. The emotional storyline is excellent, though the plot feels a tad unrealistic to me.

Premise: An Ran is in the process of trying to apply to go to Beijing for postgraduate studies in medicine and escape her hometown and her family's gendered expectations for her life. Unfortunately, her parents are in a car accident and pass away, leaving behind her six year old brother. She now has to decide whether to raise her younger brother, who she didn't know existed before this, or to pursue her dreams.

I have to caveat that most of the film is in Sichuan dialect, which I don't fully understand; with the Chinese subs, I can get most of it, but especially when they argue (and therefore speak rapidly), I am lost. I'll definitely rewatch if it comes out with English subs!

Though I suspect that the emotional resonance of An Ran being told to act like an older sister would like, one shot KO me if it were in my parents' dialects so maybe this is for the best.

As the premise says, the film's central theme is 重男轻女 wherein boys are more highly valued than girls. It echoes through how the parents tried to pretend she was disabled so they could have another child, the differences in how the siblings were treated by their parents, and in the previous generation, when the aunt had also given up her dreams to take care of her younger brother.

The brother's actor is really good for his age; definitely believed all his (gazillion) temper tantrums, but also he did a decent job in the emotional scenes. Also, at one point, he does a mini-heist with another kid and it's adorable. I think it does fall into the trap of "kid too mature for age". Needed for the story I guess.

With the previous generation, we see the paternal aunt and maternal uncle contrasted. The uncle always is on An Ran's side basically, even if he's a bit useless, while the aunt is the source of a lot of pressure to be the older sister and take care of the brother. Commentary on how women contribute to the patriarchy really. Still, the conversations between the aunt and An Ran are some of the best scenes, both narratively and in terms of acting.

As I watched, I judged how poorly An Ran was treating her brother at the beginning, because like, she /is/ an adult, but my mom pointed out how seriously she was taking his care, even before they developed family feelings towards each other. Also, brother is a bit of a spoiled brat and both of them were dealing with grief, so I suppose it's normal. (And also Doylistly needed for an emotional arc.)

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It probably hits most strongly to older sisters haha, but I think it is an interesting meditation on family dynamics for anyone.