Wu ge nu zi he yi gen sheng zi

Forget the English title. This is an amazing film. And one that next to no one in the US has seen unless it was via a festival or rented in the original language. A great pity too, since this is one of the most intelligent, genuinely moving and heartfelt films about the plight of women in rural China (and women in general) that has ever been made-and made by a man to boot.

It tells five distinct stories of five young girls, all friends, who have each experienced something so painful or humiliating or heartbreaking that they all decide to go to the mythical land where women are truly free. The catch is, this wonderland is only accessible by dying.

The acting is uniformly excellent-in particular the actor who plays the simple-minded shepherd who loves all five girls and wants to go with them. Of course he can't, so they tell him (knowing full well that he can only make it to ten before he has to start over again) to count his sheep and when he's done they'll be back.

Once seen, this film is impressed indelibly in your memory. It's a crime that no US distributor had the foresight or sensitivity to option it.

I saw this film in Taipei upon its release, and without subtitles. The story elaborates itself brilliantly through universal imagery, exceptional acting, very nice cinematography with a rich color palette. It's told in vignettes of cruelty that depict Chinese women in extraordinary fits of suffering and grief inflicted by men. In one, a woman who is hungry prepares food for men, but is forbidden from eating it alongside them, and is made to suffer when she makes her needs known. Her grief leaps off the screen, or so it seems. Although life in an older Asian clime is depicted, the storyline never lapses into parochialism. This film affects viewers quite deeply, and though the story arc is feminist, no stridency is on hand. It's about females crying out for mere modicums of empathy and parity.

For some reason, among the hundreds of films that I have watched over the years across international film festivals, this film - with it's devastating storyline and powerful visuals has stayed with me since the mid 90s when I watched it as part of a film festival in Singapore. The opening visuals probably did it. Captured my imagination and my heart. The storyline is simple. Five childhood friends each share a story of their personal experiences with another woman who has suffered under a man in her life. The individual stories are devastating, and particularly violent in one of them, which haunts me till this day. Without even showing actual acts of violence, sounds and acting evokes far worse imaginings.

Unfortunately, I have not heard of this film ever since and for a long time, I could not even find it's mention even when I Google it.

I hope to find a dvd to rewatch it again one day and to share it with another human being.