1 Girl Infinite

Starting with the suicide note of a young girl, the film investigates the reasons mentioned in the letter. Instead of becoming a thriller, the film’s mystery is as intimate and tender as the sunlight moved by Tong Tong (writer-director Lilly Hu) along the wall all the way to the face of the red haired Yin Jia (Xuanyu Che).

The love between the teenage girls is playful, straightforward and intimate. There is no need to close the bathroom door, and showering together is completely ordinary. Friction starts building because of Yin Jian’s group of friends and a new love interest who happens to be a drug dealer. As Yin Jia grows closer to the boy, Tong Tong’s jealousy grows and starts to escalate to dangerous proportions.

Lilly Hu has studied filmmaking in the United States. Her debut is a fresh and raw portrayal of love and the fear of losing it. The movie touches on topics such as sex, love and drugs, that are casual daily occurrences for young people in China but also extremely touchy subjects in the context of censorship in the country.

The story is based on Hu’s own experiences of being a teenager, and the shift in the girls’ relationship is mirrored in the gloominess of their hometown Changshan. Stylistically the film moves between beautiful and bleak: the neon lights dancing on skin resemble Wong Kar-wai’s love stories from the underworld, while the adolescent drug use and sexual relationships resemble Larry Clark’s claustrophobic coming-of-age films.

Otto Kylmälä (translated by Johanna Järvinen)