Berlin

Girls Always Happy directed by Yang Mingming has its world premiere at the 68th Berlinale at 9pm on February 16th, Berlin local time. Yang Mingming, the producer Yang Jing, and actresses Nai An, and Yuan Li were present in attendance.

Girls Always Happy is Yang Mingming’s debut feature film, in which she directs, writes, edits, and plays the lead role. Yang Chao, director of Crosscurrent, is the executive producer. Girls Always Happy is selected in the Panorama Special of 68th Berlinale, and the only Mandarin-speaking film admitted in this category.

It is also among the 18 films to compete for the “GWFF Best First Feature Award.”

Girls Always Happy portrays a single mother living with her daughter in a Beijing hutong. Wu, a freelance screenwriter, performed by Yang Mingming, rents a house in a hutong. Wu’s mother cannot get along with her father and moves to her place. Tortured by the absurd daily rules of life and the paranoid behavior of her mother, Wu becomes gradually influenced by her mother’s logic.

The two women, feeling extremely insecure, become hostile towards one another in their home setting. During the climax of their war, they cannot bear to face each other. They both enagage in separate romance respectively, but their short-lived romances do not offer them a new start of life, and so they have to continue living together… Looking at the contemporary urban life with a novel perspective, Girls Always Happy represents the spectacle of mutual repulsion, hatred, and harm between a single mother and her daughter, and yet from their despair rises the power of tender love. The complexity indicates the unique observation and expression of the director Yang Mingming on female relationships.

The audience attending the premiere gave a lively response to the film. A Spanish filmgoer commented that the film “portrays a mother-daughter relationship in a fresh, humorous cheeky way and with some flair.” A Chinese viewer stated that “among Chinese art cinema, Girls Always Happy deserves a place because it represents life with sincerity, yet without too much bitterness. The characters are shrewd, indecent, always calculating on everything, and trying to amuse themselves with the pain of life. Aren't they the little people we are so familiar with in Beijing?” Another viewer even claims, “watching the film makes me hungry! I’ve got to have some lamb meat.” The audience is in agreement that the film is “surprisingly funny, and captures with complicated psychology of the parent and the child with precision and liveliness.” Screen Daily refers to the film as “China’s answer to Lady Bird.”

Director Yang Mingming graduated from the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts. In 2013, she made a short film, Female Directors, which represented the exploration and discussion of two young female art school graduates on sex, films, and power with their shared camera. The short film adopts a subversive creative concept and photography, blending a hyper-real performance with a fictional plot. Female Directors was one of the top ten Chinese independent films of 2012. 

It showcased in youth film festivals both home and aboard, and won Viewer's Choice Award of the 2012 Hangzhou Asian Film Festival. In 2015, Yang Mingming edited Yang Chao’s feature film Crosscurrent, which was selected to the Competition of the 66th Berlinale, winning the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.

Girls Always Happy is another bold challenge for Yang Mingming following Female Directors. Girls Always Happypresents cruel and real life in a Beijing hutong with a sharp view and a romantic touch. The director explains, “It is not only a film, but also a medical record of contemporary life. While conducting an in-depth examination of individual behavior, it also dissects the intimate relationship among people like a scalpel.”

The film is also supported by strong supporting talents. Nai An, playing the part of the mother, is a well-known Chinese mainland-based producer. She worked with director Lou Ye and produced prize-winning films that were selected in competition of Cannes and Berlin International Film Festival. As an actor, she also won the Best Actress Award of the 65th Locarno International Film Festival. Zhang Xianmin plays the film professor Zhang Xian, which suits him as he is currently a professor of Literature at the Beijing Film Academy. He is also an independent film critic and curator, and is the judge of film festivals in Rotterdam, Pusan, Hong Kong, Taipei, Yunnan and the Asian Documentary Network. He organizes screening tours of Chinese independent cinema both home and abroad and holds Chinese Independent Film Festival. Li Qinqin, who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, is an actress based in mainland China. In 2004, she won the Best Supporting Actress in the 4th Chinese Film Media Awards with Cala, My Dog! Finally, sound director Fang Tao received the Best Sound Effects in the 53rd Golden Horse Awards.