Nadia Maunsell
Vulnerability
Feature
Amateur Filmmakers Breaking World Records: by Nadia Maunsell
A film review of Hi Mom! and Nomadland
In a year punctuated by hits to film revenue across the board, Chinese comedian Jia Ling’s Hi Mom! is an outlier that managed the impossible; it broke the world record for highest grossing film by a single female director. And made over $1 billion Australian dollars in the process. This feat is even more sensational because it was Jia’s first time directing, writing and playing the lead actress for a feature film. The story is based on her 2016 sketch comedy titled ‘Ni hao, Li Huanying.’
Hi Mom! is a wholly original take on a
Cast: Jia Ling, Zhang Xiaofei, Shen Teng, Chen He Director: Jia Ling Screenwriters: Jia Ling, Bu Yu Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Rating: 5/5 simple question; ‘If you could choose not to be born to give your mother the chance at lifeVerdict: Hi Mom! is a personal long happiness, would you do it?’ The cliché of reckoning with the loss of a a time-travelling protagonist trying to rewrite mother, shaped by heartfelt memories and brilliant comedic their life has been done many times over. timing. But Ling’s story is underpinned by the loss of her own mother in 2001. She intersperses comedy and heart-wrenching drama in equal measure. She gently coaxes out an intimate relationship between mother and daughter, illuminating their moments of joy together before time is inevitably up.
In a global pandemic that has made people painfully aware of the importance of family and relationships, it is unsurprising that films centring stories of vulnerability have enticed cinemagoers.
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