Available April 9June 3, 2021
Nina Wu
(Juo ren mi mi)
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"[A] haunting portrait of exploitation in the film industry... startlingly evocative, complex and confrontational"
New York Times
"Fascinating, glitchy, stylish, and troublesome... Wu Kexi turns in a rivetingly brittle, vulnerable performance"
Variety
"[A] bold and challenging departure from more naturalistic migrant dramas... Nina Wu eschews the simple dynamics of victimhood in order to examine the sickening vertigo of semi-forced complicity"
IndieWire
"Nina Wu is a singularly frightening and discombobulating experience... this is a gripping tale, aided by a skillful filmmaker and an incredible performance. Its methods are surreal and dreamlike, but its final destination is painfully real"
Film Inquiry
"Nina Wu, the latest feature from Taiwanese auteur Midi Z, firmly establishes him as one of the leaders of the latest wave of New Taiwanese Cinema"
Film Threat
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After toiling for years in bit-parts, aspiring actress Nina Wu (Ke-Xi Wu, who also co-wrote the script based on her own personal experiences) finally gets her big break with a leading role in a spy thriller set in the 1960s. The part is challenging, not least because it calls for full nudity and explicit sex scenes, and the film's director is very demanding, as he makes things very difficult for her. However, the industry and the press are confident that the results are sensationally good, and on the brink of success, Nina's psychological resolve begins to crack. She rushes back to her family home to cope with two additional crises: her father's business has gone bankrupt and her mother has suffered a heart attack. She dreams of rekindling a close relationship with her childhood friend Kiki but is haunted by paranoid fantasies that a mysterious woman is stalking and attacking her. As Nina clings to memories of happier times, she seems to be repressing one crucial memory, that will affect her recovery, in this gripping psychological thriller that also examines the destructive nature of abuse and exploitation within the film industry.
Directed by Midi Z, Taiwan/Malaysia/Myanmar, 2019, 103 mins. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
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