In 2003, Lily (Lin Jiaxin), who has immigrated to the United States for five years, returns to Taiwan from Los Angeles with her two daughters, Fang Yi (Fang Yuting) and Fang An (Lin Pintong), to reunite with her husband Zong Hui (Zhuang Kaixun).
Fang Yi fell behind in her Chinese obstacles and was jokingly called "American Girl" by her classmates. Fang Yi, who is eager to return to the United States, and her mother Lily are in constant conflict, resulting in tensions between family members and reaching their peak with the outbreak of SARS.
Director Ruan Fengyi once directed the short film "Sister", taking a picture of the past of immigrating to the United States with her mother and sister to live, recording the mood of first arriving in the United States and eager to integrate into Western society, and this time "American Girl" is like an extension of "Sister", at the age of 13, because of her mother's cancer, in order to treat the mother and daughter, she had to move back to Taiwan, she is like Fang Yi in the lens, at the age when she most needs to be recognized by the environment, she chooses to rebel in the face of confusion, She turned the pain brought about by the impact of various adaptations after returning to Taiwan and the differences in Taiwanese and American education culture into anger and catharsis on her mother. From "Sister" to "American Girl", director Ruan Fengyi endured the dreams of her parents and from the previous generation, she was forced to do the American dream that had to be decided by herself, but she was also forced to wake up from the American dream, when the dream was done and then woke up, she became neither An American nor a Taiwanese being, she could only struggle awkwardly in the middle, growing up with more tears than laughter, full of scars to find self and identity identity, but also had to try to solve the problems with her family, whether it was "Sister" and her sister's knots Or in the conflict between "American Girl" and her mother, before she grew up, before she could understand her parents' intentions and intentions, she had to face everything in her own way.
"Do you still think this is not your home?"
The reason why "American Girl" is moving, in addition to the above collective memories that belong to an era, the most important thing is still the emotion attached to each scene of the movie, director Ruan Fengyi will personally experience into a movie plot, let herself project on the created character Fangyi, through her to review the growth process, in the 31-year-old now look back at the 13-year-old Ruan Fengyi, from the contradiction of Fangyi and her mother Wang Lili's love but killing, to get the opportunity to re-examine the past and review themselves, Therefore, she did not only let the role of Fang Yi speak unilaterally, but chose to put in the mother's point of view, trying to look at her former immaturity from the perspective of her mother, and she wanted to feel the anxiety and boredom of her mother from Wang Lili, and her mother desperately wanted to convey the love that could always be ignored by herself. Fang Yi and Lily are actually afraid of change, from the physical and psychological discomfort so that the anxiety caused by the drastic changes in the living environment is doubled, the father who should have stood in the middle to absorb, digest and then soothe the emotions of the two people, and often because of work trips to China is not at home, the mother and daughter have been, has been fiercely colliding with each other, when the conflict continues to occur in this home, and there is nothing to do to stop or deal with, "want to return to the United States" has become the common wish of mother and daughter, although it seems that only Fang Yi constantly cries want to go back, But in fact, why wouldn't Wang Lili want to? If she hadn't been sick, how would she have chosen to come back? "America" is not just a dream, it's more of a place where they can escape from reality.
If returning to the United States can calm down all the turmoil, Lily and her husband Zonghui will try their best to send Fang Yi back to the United States even if the family is ruined, but will the problem of really going back to the United States be solved? What I couldn't imagine, Fang Yi knew very well in her heart, that she wanted to return to the United States not only because she missed her friends and made excuses for not being able to adapt to life in Taiwan, but also because she was afraid of losing her mother. Fang Yi hated that her mother always hung up on her own death, and Zong Hui was also tired of her wife who said this, but they all knew that Lily wanted them to prepare for her absence as soon as possible, but they didn't want to accept it, so they turned this evasive mentality to vent their dissatisfaction with other things, and even unconsciously hypnotized themselves and told themselves that if they returned to the United States, they would be fine, how could they not make people feel uncomfortable when they thought of it?
"What the hell are you mad at?"
"I just think she can do better."
"But what if that's already her best?"
"I want you to be the best version of yourself."
"What if that's already my best look?"
"American Girl" focuses on Fang Yi and Lily, but the father Zong Hui is equally important, he is almost the father of my impression, always busy with work, want to bring a better life to the family, due to the nature of the work, when we are ready to sleep is the time for the father to go home, and the next day when we get up to go to school, he is still sleeping, even the holiday is difficult for a good family of four to sit down to eat, in this family he and his mother are the standard traditional society "male outside, female inside", he actually rarely cares about family affairs The school contact book or homework is signed and taught by the mother, in contrast, he does not care much about the grades, so it is really the same as in the movie, if the test is too poor, I will run to my father to sign, but the only thing he can't stand is that we resist. When we make a loud and loud noise to our mother, he will teach us a lesson, punish kneeling, kneeling abacus, taking a rattan or hanger, and slapping him, but this alone is enough to make us afraid of him, and the father's sense of majesty is slowly established at many such times, and when the father is like Zonghui, he teaches us how we can talk to adults like this, and the mother will rush forward to try to pull the father away, while shouting "Okay, okay, don't fight", the first to give up is always the mother. "American Girl" not only condenses the epitome of the memories of that era, but also reproduces the appearance of the people who grew up at that time, so looking sideways and straight, from any point of view, what you see is the story of our generation.
The delicacy of the whole movie, the magic of the white horse, the lines and bridges that seem to have been similar, "American Girl" is more like "Taiwanese movies" than many Taiwanese movies, it will make you involuntarily want to plant into the memory, forced to evoke a lot of happy and unhappy experiences, without the need to force can easily break into the audience's heart, making people have feelings and emotions about the movie. Director Ruan Fengyi from "Sister" to "American Girl", from short films to feature films, she uses her strength to tell the audience that she may be the most capable director of family themes in Taiwan, although she failed to win the grand prize at the Golden Horse Awards, but I believe that "American Girl" will definitely reverberate in the hearts of the audience for a long time, next year, five years, ten years or even longer, will still be remembered a mark of the times. Text/Lao Tzu