Yen and Ai-Lee
Southeast Asian Premiere
Tom Lin Shu-Yu Taiwan 2024 107 min NC16 (Some Sexual Scenes and Violence)
An incisive probe into self-sacrificial family dynamics and intergenerational trauma rendered by tour de force performances.
Hurt people hurt people. This aphorism looms over the central tale of a mother–daughter relationship that unspools messily from the moment Yen returns home from prison. As Yen and her mother Ai-Lee move tenuously towards reconciliation, the sudden appearance of Yen’s half-brother introduces further fractures. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman resembling Yen turns up at an acting class with fictions that threaten to expose Yen’s secrets.
Set in the Hakka district of Meinong, accumulated trauma and resentment eat away at rural charms in this grim black-and-white variation of the Kaohsiung countryside. Through an elegant, layered screenplay, this drama examines the roles we take on for others and the acts we perform in their name.
Q&A with Filmmaker(s)
1 Dec, Sun 2:00PM / 107 min
National Museum Singapore, Gallery Theatre
AT THE FEST!
All screenings are on a free seating, first-come, first-served basis. We kindly ask all ticket holders to arrive on time. Latecomers may not be guaranteed entry.
RUSH QUEUE:
For last-minute attendees, good news. Our Rush Queue is back this year!
Yen and Ai-Lee
小雁與吳愛麗
Tom Lin Shu-Yu
Taiwan
2024
Mandarin, Hakka, Taiwanese Hokkien
English
107 min
NC16 (Some Sexual Scenes and Violence)
Southeast Asian Premiere
Tom Lin Shu-Yu
Tom Lin Shu-Yu made his directorial debut with Winds of September (2008). His later works include Zinnia Flower (2015) and The Garden of Evening Mists (2019), which was nominated for nine Taipei Golden Horse Awards, cementing his status in Taiwanese cinema. Yen and Ai-Lee received the Kim Jiseok Award at Busan.
Clifford Miu,
Zhang Linhan
Kimi Hsia,
Yang Kuei-mei,
Sam Tseng
