In modern Chinese society there are still great tensions between traditional expectations and individual self -fulfillment. Young people in particular feel the need to realize their own dreams, but feel like they are at the guilt of their parents. The so -called branch piety is a cornerstone of Chinese ethics. He not only demands respect, obedience and emotional and financial support towards their parents. This responsibility often extends to other family members and is particularly strongly felt and adhered to by women.
In her new film, director and screenwriter Vivian Qu (“Angels Wear White”) takes these tensions for the outcome for a captivating story about two opposing cousins, which brings fate back together after five years of separation. In “Girls on Wire”who, in the Chinese original, has the much more poetic title “The girls who want to fly”, tells an emotional melodrama on two time levels and also with the means of the (gangster) genre cinema, which is not always round, but still touches and shakes .
Can the cousins of Tian Tian (Liu Haocun) and catch the guilt and debt of their family?
After Tian Tian (Liu Haocun) escaped from the captivity of brutal gangsters who forced her injected drugs, she struggles to the film city of Xianghan. In the place where the large historical films of Chinese cinemas are being created, she is looking for her cousin, which she has not seen for five years. Fang Di (WEN Qi) left home to start a new life as an actress.
Fang Di is currently not working as an actress, but as a stunt woman. She is not very enthusiastic about Tian Tian's arrival, even if she was once like a little sister for her. Because she suspects that the cousin only wants more money from her. In doing so, she is already sending home more than she can afford and has long been deep in the fault with a lender. While it seems questionable whether the two young women find their former bond again, a gangster trio is already looking for Tian Tian in the film city …
The past as a burden
Vivian Quar describes her story on two time levels. While we see in the contemporary act compressed in a few days whether the women can free themselves from their misery, we both get to know both in detailed flashbacks. Again and again, Qu Qu At certain moments in the relationship between Tian Tian and Fang di as little girls, teenagers and young adults. In Chongqing we also get to know their large family, who, like so many in the Chinese mega city, dreams of getting rich with the textile business.
But it is a downward spiral that we attend. Tian Tian's father (Zhou You) is addicted to drugs, still somehow gets money from his sister (Peng Jing), although they can hardly pay the workers in the textile factory and their other business decisions are not the best. In addition to the debts, there is also a guilt that was invited – a murder act that the brother once committed for the sister and which makes it impossible for her, despite his constant lies and his destructive influence, above all on his own daughter to violate.
Hardly escaping
These flashbacks are filmed in a constricting 4: 3 image format. We look at something past, no longer changeable – and at the same time ask ourselves the question of whether the cousins can at least change their lives in the present and get the chance of a new beginning. Early dawns that this is by no means safe. Responsibility for the family weighs too heavily, freely struggle for your own life seems almost impossible. All of this provides the necessary substructure for the emotional effectiveness of decisions that are later made in the film – especially in a flashback in which Tian Tian dissolves from her father (albeit at a high price).
Vivian Quar sometimes opposes the almost opulent cinema of the almost nostalgic 4: 3 pictures of the past. The film city Xiangshan also allows her to go to the genre cinema as a setting. Fang di flies through the air while shooting a Wuxia film and proves its heavy combat skills. Together with the experienced choreographer Liu Mingzhe (“The Assassin”, “Red Cliff”), the director creates good action scenes here, but also shows how these are done. “Girls on Wire” is a bow and disenchantment of film art here – with a very critical look.
Between dream factory and hard reality
The Liu Haocun, which is engaging here, was recently the main actress in addition to Jackie Chan in “Ride On – The Second Chance” in front of the camera – a film that, despite all the nostalgic enthusiasm, also illuminated the hard reality of the stunt business. Here this part now comes to the Wen Qi (“The Bold, The Corrupt and The Beautiful”).
The shooting of a scene in which Fang di is repeatedly sunk in the ice -cold water of a nightly river despite its period, demask the cruel side of such a shoot. Again and again the increasingly powerless stunt woman has to repeat the sequence because the director still has something to complain about. And although she is no longer physically able to do so, she continues – she is guilty and debt, which is what we are back on with a central theme of the film.
An unexpected moment of humor
While this part is painful to look at, Vivian Qu suddenly allows humor elsewhere. Because, despite their brutal acting, the gangsters, which are somewhat clumsy, undertook a confusion, they look for women on the wrong set and end up in the middle of a war film – and ruin several shots there. This passage is a sudden break in the film, but a welcome moment for freed -to -free laughing in a history that appears again and again.
He also illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of “Girls on Wire” very well. Some things are round here, not all individual pieces always fit together properly. There are moments that run a little into void, while others are too much the obvious spelling or striving for clichés. But every scene has its effect, is funny or often moving. You are feverish with Tian Tian and Fang Di and hope that they will somehow find a way out, but they can still live their own independent life. However, one suspects that this is roughly as likely as the title -giving dream of flying.
Conclusion: “Girls on Wire” is an ambitious melodrama that impresses personal and social conflicts in China in an impressive way. Even if not all narrative elements merged perfectly, the film has a great emotional effect – borne especially by two strong leading actors.
As “Girls On Wire” saw at the Berlinale 2025, where it was shown as part of the official competition.