Synopsis
A ten-year-old girl, Mimi, was assigned by adults to be a boy in a small town in 2013. To prove she was a girl, she made a desperate effort that nearly led to a serious mistake.
Yang Miaojing
YANG Miaojing, a native of Weinan in Shaanxi Province, grew up in a family of teachers. At one year old, she cried her eyes out. At five, she left home on Route 108. At ten, she designed a newspaper and sold it for 50 cents. At sixteen, she maintained the first place in her class for seven consecutive years. At twenty, she made her first film. Two years later, she began studying film.
Director's statement
The story originates from my mother’s pregnancy dream, where a chicken ate a snake. Gradually, the boy predicted by the fortune teller became a girl—me. The film depicts the real fear I experienced at the tender age of ten when I was plain-looking, aggressive, and stunted. I wondered, if I could have been a boy in my mother’s womb, would a boy’s penis one day grow out? This question haunted me until my period came. Then Mimi came to my mind, a girl who looks so much like a boy that even she thinks she might be one. How can she prove that she has a girl’s body? Driven by her curiosity, she makes many interesting attempts, provoking strong reactions from the adults who had ignored her from the beginning. These reactions hurt her deeply.
