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A school accident brings Shuo, an only child, to the attention of Wei, another only child. Avoidant of anything beyond the challenges found in video games, Wei sees in the introverted and somewhat affection-deprived Shuo a convenient distraction, or simply someone to keep his mother away from his console. While Wei remains spellbound by his screen, Shuo, studious and unusually articulate for his age, comes to embody the ideal son: polite, promising, and in need of care. He slips easily into the space left vacant by Wei’s inch-perfect parents, who manage everything except their teenage child. Shuo is entering the family.

“Brief History of a Family” moves with the rhythm of a psychological mystery, a thriller that never quite escalates. Drawing from the clean, sterile aesthetic of its genre, Lin Jianjie delivers a sculpted debut, primarily preoccupied with light, framing, and cinematic references. Beyond its visual control, the film...

Lin Jianjie’s remarkable debut feature keeps you guessing to the final scene – a thrilling film directed and performed immaculately

This knockout debut feature from Chinese writer-director Lin Jianjie is like some kind of cinematic kinetic mobile, such as the ones artist Alexander Calder designed in the last century; it’s so exquisitely balanced that it’s able to keep reconfiguring itself with the merest breeze into a whole new arrangement of shapes that’s just as pleasing and abstract as the last. Precision and random chance, freestyle inspiration and formal craft are all in constant play here. That perfectly complements the story itself, a parable about a tricky space – the family unit – where talent, ambition and the lottery of genetics and luck all dance around one another, held in place by gravity and desire. It really is that good, and well-worth seeing in a cinema, not just on a small screen at home,...

Directed by Lin Jianjie, starring Zu Feng, Guo Keyu, Sun Xilun and Lin Muran, “Brief History of a Family” has played to acclaim at international festivals including Sundance, Berlin International Film Festival and Karlovy Vary.

A taut and wicked tale of privilege, rivalry and secrets as a middle-class family’s fate becomes intertwined with their son’s enigmatic new friend in this dark and suspenseful thriller from director Lin Jianjie. Charismatic Wei and quiet Shuo became fast friends after an accident at school. Soon Shuo is a frequent guest at Wei’s family home, but as he embeds himself deeper into their lives, cracks begin to show. The perfect family have old wounds and dark secrets that cannot stay hidden.

“Brief History of a Family” is in UK cinemas 21 March and Irish cinemas 26 March from Blue Finch Film Releasing. You can find our review Here...

"My father never listens to Bach." "How did you know Bach?" Blue Finch Films has posted their trailer for a superb Chinese thriller titled Brief History of a Family, arriving to watch soon. This first premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival last year, with stops at the Berlin, Atlanta, Sydney, Melbourne, Zurich, and Karlovy Vary Film Festivals. After the one-child policy ends in China, a middle-class family's fate becomes intertwined with their only son's enigmatic new friend. Unspoken secrets begin to unravel, putting unmet expectations and untended emotions under the microscope. Charismatic Wei and quiet Shuo become fast friends after an accident at school. Soon Shuo is a frequent guest at the Wei's family home, but as he embeds himself deeper into their lives, cracks begin to show. The perfect family have old wounds and dark secrets that cannot stay hidden. Starring Zu Feng, Guo Keyu, Sun Xilun, and Lin Muran.

Jianjie (JJ) Lin's debut feature “Brief History of a Family” stood out in the programming at Sundance this year. The Chinese-Danish co-production – one of this year's nominees in the World Cinema – Dramatic competition – surrenders to ambiguity. Unlike the many straightforward narratives at this year's edition, the film remains mum on who's on the side of good and evil – and perhaps, that underlines the thrill of the movie.

“A Brief History of a Family” premiered at Sundance 2024, and will play in the Panorama of the 74th edition of Berlinale. World sales is managed by Films Boutique and the screening schedule is available here.

Here, the spoiled Tu Wei (Muran Lin) lives a happy, upper middle class life with his two parents (Ke-Yu Guo and Feng Zu). Things begin to change, however, when he takes a high school classmate, Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun) under his wing after an accident at a basketball court.

Jianjie Lin’s Brief History of a Family is an immaculate sculpture, one of those art-film thrillers in which every element of every frame is under profound control. There’s no stray detail here, no spontaneous behavioral business for the audience to discover for itself.

The risk of this sort of film is lifelessness, as in any number of thrillers released each year by A24. But the potential benefit is a heightened suspense achieved by our implicit understanding that the filmmakers have the means and ability to do whatever they please. You’re in their hands, and they could be ready to work you over. Lin achieves and sustains this tension, as his eerie, underpopulated frames and pregnant foreshadowing create an understated unease.

Brief History of a Family opens with a medium shot of a teenage boy, Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun), attempting to do pull-ups on a playground. Shuo is...

Children often complain about not being able to choose their parents, but the opposite is true as well, and rarely explored in fiction with the elegance and pithiness of Jianjie Lin’s directorial debut Brief History of a Family. Set in modern China, where the emerging middle class is trying to form an identity, the film presents us with two sets of characters whose stories become intertwined in unexpectedly powerful ways.

We first meet Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun) as he’s literally hanging for dear life while attempting a pull-up in the schoolyard. When he falls and hurts his knee, he’s taken to the nurse by Wei (Muran Lin), a fellow schoolmate who pities him. The two become fast friends, and soon Wei invites Yan Shuo over to play video games and talk about their lives.

Both boys––products of the controversial one-child policy used to control overpopulation in...