Girls’ School(RTRFH 2022)

Rediscovered in recent years, Girls School is the last film in Lee Mi-mi’s ‘Female Trilogy’. Ting and Lin are inseparable friends in their all-girls high school. Their close relationship becomes a subject of their classmates’ envy, which leads to rumours about homosexuality. Following the others’ warning, Lin distances herself from Ting, who is a stubborn loner from a single-parent household. Her despair eventually leads to an accident. The vilification of homosexuality is a lethal weapon that forces characters to confront the power of social norms. Their attitudes constitute group dialectics, which all seem reasonable. Under the restrictions of the era, the film is able to handle the special theme without dwelling on venting its position and allow room for ambiguity. It has the ability to evoke various feelings and thoughts, leaving viewers to ponder the future. The director returns to her alma mater in Pingtung to shoot this film. Under the bright warm sun, the elegant schoolhouse and fresh faces contrast with the character’s painful coming-of-age.

*Taiwan Cinema Digital Restoration 2020. The image was scanned from the 35mm original camera negative and the audio from the original soundtrack negative.

Lee Mi-mi (1946- )
Born in Pingtung, Taiwan, Lee Mi-mi once served as script supervisor for Lee Hsing and assistant director for Pan Lei and Jimmy Wang Yu. In 1972, she directed the Taiwanese-language film Pure Love. She started her own company in the 1980s and directed Unmarried Mothers (1980), Evening News (1980), and Girls’ School.

^Pre-screening Introduction