After toiling for years in bit-parts, aspiring actress Nina Wu (Ke-Xi Wu, who also co-wrote the script based on her own personal experiences) finally gets her big break with a leading role in a spy thriller set in the 1960s.
The part is challenging, not least because it calls for full nudity and explicit sex scenes, and the film’s director is very demanding as he makes things difficult for her. However, when the industry and the press are confident that the results are sensationally good and on the brink of success, Nina’s psychological resolve begins to crack. She rushes back to her family home to cope with two additional crises: her father’s business has gone bankrupt and her mother has suffered a heart attack. She dreams of rekindling a close relationship with her childhood friend Kiki, but is haunted by paranoid fantasies that a mysterious woman is stalking and attacking her.
As Nina clings to memories of happier times, she seems to be repressing one crucial memory that will affect her recovery, in this gripping psychological thriller that also examines the destructive nature of abuse and exploitation within the film industry.
Screened in Mandarin with English subtitles.
Midi Z | Taiwan/Malaysia/Myanmar | 2019 | 103 mins.
