Awards and festivals

Film description

A woman living in Shanghai, Ansen, is asked to help find the author of a popular internet novel, which is about to be turned into a movie. Ansen is one of the protagonists of the autobiographical story, but she has not been in touch with the writer. She seems to have an ambivalent attitude to the memories awakened by the search, but the past refuses to be swept under a rug – reading the diary takes her back to the times when she was 13 and has just met her best friend, July.

Stretched over two decades, the story of two girls’ turbulent friendship is a passionate, melancholic tale about teenage volatility, coming of age, and the painful clash with reality. The director masterfully captures the beauty and the inevitable pain of the process. His sensitivity in portraying the details of every-day life, the elusive moments affirming the close bond between the characters, resembles the poetics of Sofia Coppola’s films. The girls' story is also a glimpse of the history of modern China – which is also blooming, hungry for life, striving for a better future, and grappling with its problems. Ansen and July, charismatic and intriguing from the very first scene, are a pair of perfectly complementing opposites – the actresses playing the girls received a double award for the best leading actress, for the first time in the history of the prestigious Golden Horse Festival.

Jagoda Murczyńska