A quiet, watchful girl finds a way out of a joyless home in Girl, the 2025 coming-of-age drama that marks actress Shu Qi's feature debut as a director.
What is Girl about?
Set in late-1980s Taiwan, the film follows Hsiao-lee, an introverted schoolgirl who has learned to keep her head down in a household ruled by a volatile, hard-drinking father and a mother worn thin by years of putting up with him. Everything shifts when she meets Li-li, a cheerful, free-spirited classmate who seems to carry none of the weight Hsiao-lee drags around. Through that friendship she glimpses the dreams she had quietly buried: the idea that life could be bigger than the cramped apartment and the fear that fills it. But the past has a way of circling back. As her mother's own history surfaces, Hsiao-lee begins to see how closely it mirrors her present, and the film asks whether a daughter can break a cycle that was set in motion long before she was born. Shu Qi balances the heaviness of the subject with warmth and small, hopeful moments, letting the story breathe in the gaps between confrontations.
About the cast
Newcomer Bai Xiao-Ying carries the film as Hsiao-lee, holding the camera with a stillness that says more than dialogue. Audrey Lin (Lin Pin-tung) plays Li-li, the bright spark who pulls her out of her shell, while Roy Chiu takes the difficult role of the father and singer-actress 9m88 plays the mother caught between her husband and her children. Lai Yu-fei appears as the younger sister, with Esther Liu, Bamboo Chen, and Liu Kuan-ting filling out the household and neighbourhood around them.
Context & significance
Girl is a Taiwan-China co-production from 2025 and the first feature directed by Shu Qi, one of the most recognisable actresses in Chinese-language cinema. She has described the story as drawing on her own childhood, and that personal grounding shows in the period detail of late-1980s Keelung and in the film's attention to how girls learn to make themselves small. It premiered in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival in September 2025, a rare slot for a first-time director, and its blend of family drama, music, and tentative first friendships gives it a tone closer to memory than melodrama.
Watching Girl on Ktime
Girl is available to stream on K-Time with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles. The page itself is free to browse; watching the film requires signing into a K-Time account, with menus and navigation available in Farsi for viewers in the diaspora.