Avis des critiques

A slow-burning character study, Bai takes her time establishing Peipei’s world, teasing out the complications of her home life and family history, building her sense of isolation from her parents and her wealthier peers, such that her bad decisions (like joining a criminal gang) seem almost a reasonable escape.

Bolstered by a sophisticated technical polish and audacious tonal shifts—from dynamic handheld shots in Hong Kong to mannered static compositions in Shenzhen—the film’s construction reflects its protagonist’s bifurcated existence in her external domains and emotional states.

The story sounds facetious on paper, but Bai plays it straight and guides the teen performances away from archetype and toward psychological specificity.

Bai’s cinema flows and sparks, and shows with intelligence and precocious authority how the problematic circulation (authorized or not) of goods, desires, and humanity across borders is at the foundation of our 21st-century existence.