Life can be determined by various things. The people you meet, the paths you take, even the decisions you make. Yet it can be hard to visualise a future when life gets in the way. Tracy Choi’s triptych Girlfriends, which premiered at London’s Queer East film festival, explores this as it follows the same character at three different points in her life.
The semi-autobiographical drama follows Tsui Lok Yan, also known as Lok, as she experiences love as a director in 2024, a university student in 2010, and a young woman in 2006.
While the film’s non-chronological order feels like a stylistic choice, it feels unconventional for a coming-of-age story. Audiences first meet Lok (Fish Liew), her career as a director has stalled and is resigned to teaching while her girlfriend Bei (Jennifer Yu) makes impulsive choices such as buying a flat and arranging to go into a fake marriage to obtain benefits — all of which had not been discussed with Lok. The climactic scene that sees the two women confront their respective happiness in the relationship is powerful but considering its position in Lok’s life, its suddenness feels like that she doesn’t possess the maturity to move forward as an adult.
But as Girlfriends progresses, audiences better understand Lok’s frustation as it stems from her younger years. Via two distinct experiences as a student, audiences see her embrace her sexual identity and chafe against her family’s expectations while navigating intense relationships with Taiwanese girlfriend Kai Ching (Han Ning) and Faye (Eliz Lum), an aspiring fashion designer that awakens Lok’s queerness. In this female-driven production, the actresses playing Lok exude a restraint that hints at how the yearning in her youth evolved into her closed-heartedness as an adult. What complements them is the range of supporting roles, especially Yu and Han, who bring grit amid their free-spirited characters as they emotionally challenge Lok in different ways.
Choi’s intimate direction and Simmy Cheong’s cinematography cleverly use confined spaces and charged sequences that physically emphasise Lok’s need to break out. Whether it is an 7-11 store or arguments in the middle of the street, the visuals effectively contrast the emotional impact each relationship has on Lok while recurring cues remind audiences of her ties to Macau, and more specifically, the life that she had consistently tried to escape.
All the while, Shiu Wa Lou and Sebrina Cheng’s screenplay reiterate certain themes so the consistent narrative echoes in each story. There is the heft of parental expectations regarding careers, relationships and education, as well as the girlfriends who fail to effectively communicate to or include Lok into their future plans. All the while, her key characteristic – her creative ambition – is challenged at each stage of her life, resulting in a lifelong struggle to find her voice. With a resistance to convention and an inability to honesty, the film paints Lok as someone who wants to be true to themselves amid their bittersweet life story.
In a deeply personal tale, Girlfriends is a melancholic story on life and love. Lok’s struggles with both are endearing to watch, complemented by its smart visuals.
Girlfriends is out in UK cinemas on 19 June.
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Director: Tracy Choi; Shiu Wa Lou, Sebrina Cheng (screenwriters)
Stars: Fish Liew, Jennifer Yu, Elizabeth Tang, Han Ning, Natalie Hsu, Eliz Lum
Runtime: 101 minutes
Country: Macau, Taiwan, Hong Kong
