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This groundbreaking work from Li Hong, China’s first independent female
documentarian, follows two years in the lives of four young women from the
countryside who have come to Beijing for jobs. Although they work long hours as
maids or street vendors and share a tiny room no bigger than a closet, they
savor these years— between living as a daughter at home and returning to the
village to marry —as probably the freest time of their lives. Documenting both
her deepening relationship with these women and the gulf of experiences and
opportunity that separate them, Hong carefully charts their hopes for a better
future and dreams of self-determination. In interviews and intimate footage,
Hong elicits remarkably candid and complex testimony from her subjects as they
frankly discuss their work, pressures from home, and experiences with men. A
remarkable achievement, this touching film is a fascinating look at the lives
of women whose experiences are rarely explored. As they straddle traditional
and modern roles, their stories uniquely exemplify the conflicts between the
swift changes in women’s roles occurring in China and around the developing
world.
A Women Make Movies film. 120 minutes.
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