Credits

Regie

LEE Mi-mi

Cast

TIEN Niu, CHOU Dan-wei, CHIN Han, SHEN Yan, LIN Nan-shi

Genre

drama

Speelduur

91 minutes

Land

Taiwan

Taal

Mandarin

Ondertiteling

English

Storyline

Chih-ting and Chia-lin are inseparable. Best friends at an all-girls high school, the pair spend all their time together, inside and outside of the classroom. But when a rumour that they are a couple begins to spread, their relationship comes under the scrutiny of their peers, teachers, and family, forcing the two young women into a corner when their relationship carries no label.

Filmmaker LEE Mi-mi is one of Taiwan’s pioneering but often forgotten women directors. In the 1980s, she made 3 films about the changing place of women in Taiwan, dubbed the “Taiwanese Urban Women Trilogy,” of which Girls’ School was the final instalment and the only one with queerness front and centre. Made at a time when homosexuality was heavily stigmatised, Girls’ School reflects part of the times’ conservatism but also sharply confronts the shifting discourse around women and family. Above all, it is a representative work of a director at the forefront of her time.

Girls’ School was restored by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.