Not that I want to be cruel to this small innocuous film, but one has to
wonder how it got invited to a prestigious film festival like the Hong Kong
International Film Festival. I suppose a festival such as this feels obligated
to support young Chinese directors, but I suspect that its theme of female
empowerment drove a politically correct decision more than a film one. Three
directors contribute short films about individual women in Taiwan.
The first one is a satiric look at women having to mold themselves to what
men perceive as the ideal woman. Jolie’s parents try for years to have a
child – using every sexual position one can do without physical harm – and
once they are able to conceive they find they have a girl with superpowers
on their hands. As Jolie grows up she realizes that her super strength scares
off men and so attempts to become the perfect little woman by hiding her
powers. I am not sure whether the second story was really a documentary or
a mock one – but it follows a young woman who has just left her husband after
a few years of marriage. Purportedly, the woman had been the film subject
of this documentarian for years and so the film is able to crisscross the
present with flashback moments of her past as she learns to stand up on her
own again. The final piece is a woman in search of an orgasm. A young woman
spends hours at the beach with her surfer boyfriend until he describes that
catching a wave is like having an orgasm. From that point on she becomes
hooked in hopes that she find that perfect wave and ride it to a climax.
Men be damned, who needs them.