Review | American Girl movie review: Karena Lam, Caitlin Fang play mother and daughter in Golden Horse Awards-winning family drama
- A woman with cancer and her daughters move back to Taiwan from the US in a film that perfectly captures a family tragedy from the point of an uprooted teenager
- Where American Girl struggles is in earning our sympathy for the others – such as Karena Lam and Kaiser Chuang’s characters, who minimise her impending death
3/5 stars
Winner of five Golden Horse Awards, including best new performer for young star Caitlin Fang and best new director for Fiona Roan Feng-i, American Girl is the semi-autobiographical story of Lily (Karena Lam Ka-yan), who moves back to Taiwan from the United States with her two daughters after she is diagnosed with breast cancer.
Told from the point of view of Lily’s elder daughter Fen (Fang), who had fully integrated into American society and now struggles to readjust to Taiwanese life, American Girl unfolds during the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak of 2003.
On their return to Taiwan, the family is reunited with patriarch Huay (Kaiser Chuang Kai-hsun), whose work had prevented him from emigrating with them. It quickly becomes apparent that he has become estranged from his daughters, who now both prefer speaking in English despite their mother’s protestations, and from Lily herself.
Their apartment has also been somewhat neglected, providing another point of conflict between husband and wife. Fen’s resentment at being torn away from her life in California is fuelled by the agonisingly slow internet connection at home and the incredibly strict and draconian approach to education at the frustrated teenager’s new school.
At the centre of the drama is Lily’s terminal cancer diagnosis, and the compounding levels of stress and impending tragedy that it brings upon the family. Seen from Fen’s perspective, however, her illness remains a largely abstract obstacle. We are witness only to the symptoms, such as her mother’s dwindling energy levels and the growing friction between Lily and Huay as he refuses even to discuss her imminent death.
Keenly informed by deeply personal experience, Roan’s debut feature convincingly captures the confusion and uncertainty of a family tragedy from the vantage point of an uprooted teenager. Repeatedly stonewalled by her parents and falling behind at school, Fen becomes obsessed with finding a horse-riding centre, which only exacerbates an already strained situation.
Where American Girl struggles is in earning our sympathy for the other characters in the film. Both Lily and Huay are frustratingly stubborn and selfish in their efforts to minimise the looming tragedy, so much so that their behaviour quickly becomes infuriating.
Rather than appearing brave, stoic or even understandably scared in the face of a terminal illness, they persist in holding one another, and in turn the viewer, firmly at arm’s length.
