3/5 stars
Macau filmmaker Tracy Choi Ian-sin revisits the tender, nostalgic tone of her directorial debut, Sisterhood (2016), for this semi-autobiographical lesbian drama. Girlfriends charts a young woman’s coming-of-age experience and ongoing quest to find her place in the world through three episodes from separate periods of her life, unfolding in reverse chronological order and under different names.
It opens in 2024 Hong Kong, where the Macau-born director Lok (Fish Liew Chi-yu) has been struggling to secure her second project after the early success of her first feature. Despite the emotional support of her live-in partner Bei Bei (Jennifer Yu Heung-ying), a cheerful actress who wants to start a family, Lok appears as conflicted as ever about her life’s direction.
