THE OLD TOWN GIRLS: Darkness On The Edge Of Town

The Old Town Girls, the debut feature from writer-director Shen Yu, begins with an almighty bang: parents in a deteriorating industrial town are arguing frantically about what to do after being told that their children have been kidnapped for a hefty ransom. The police are about to get involved, but not everyone wants them to be… the reasons for which soon become all too clear. What follows is a film as extended flashback, showing us how these characters ended up trapped in such a tangled web of economic stress, familial strain, and teenage angst. Yet while the neo-noir plot of The Old Town Girls was inspired by a true story, the film’s criminal side feels like an unnecessary distraction from what is otherwise a powerful coming-of-age story.

Born to Run

When Shui Qing (rising star Li Gengxi) was an infant, her mother, Qu Ting (Wan Qian), abandoned her to pursue a career as a dancer in the big city. Her father’s new wife and child are resentful of Shui Qing’s existence, with her stepmother going so far as to turn her away when she comes home from school so that they can have a family dinner without her; her father, exhausted from long days working in the local factory, doesn’t have the energy to fight back on behalf of his eldest child or to provide her with the affection that she so desperately needs.

So, it’s no wonder that Shui Qing is drawn to her mother when she suddenly returns after a seventeen-year absence. Qu Ting’s sunshine-colored wardrobe and ruby-red lipstick are a welcome burst of color and light amidst the drab gray landscape; her charismatic personality and willingness to spend time with Shui Qing provide a much-needed lifeline to a young woman who has otherwise been deprived of familial love. Even when Shui Qing learns that her mother’s return is less about reconnecting with her daughter and more about escaping massive debts owed to dangerous people, she is still willing to do whatever it takes to help Qu Ting… even become her partner in crime.

Badlands

The run-down world of The Old Town Girls is one that was left behind by the economic revival that otherwise transformed China; here, there are so few opportunities for advancement that one cannot really blame Qu Ting for abandoning it all to look elsewhere. Indeed, Shui Qing isn’t the only young woman starved for affection in this town, a desolate, lonely place where parents must consistently choose between having a livelihood and having a life, between spending time with their children now and earning enough money in the hope that somehow, someday, their children might be better off. But how much better can their lives truly be without love?

Shui Qing’s classmate, Jin Xi (Ye Chai), comes off as bold and confident, but this attitude is largely a defense mechanism acquired after mostly growing up alone while her parents traveled for work. Meanwhile, quiet and reserved Ma Yueyue (Ziyue Zhou) was raised by a kindly middle-class couple while her father was away; now he’s back, and trying to control his daughter’s every move — and when she disobeys, he hits her. All three girls have been neglected by those who were supposed to care for them most; all three find a source of energy and excitement in the return of Qu Ting, whose worldly attitude and wild stories fill a void that has been empty their entire lives. But Qu Ting’s demons are not far behind and are destined to hurt not just Shui Qing, but her friends as well.

The Old Town Girls thrives when delving deep into the relationships between the four women at its center, all of whom give remarkable performances — especially Wan Qian as the charismatic, mercurial Qu Ting and Li Gengxi as the vulnerable, yet surprisingly strong, Shui Qing. Wan and Li beautifully convey the natural chemistry of a mother-daughter duo as well as the awkwardness inherent in being reunited after so long apart that you may as well be strangers. That Shen gave her actors the freedom to improvise in many of their scenes only adds to the gritty realism of their performances. It is easy to see how these women have been forged in the fires of their hometown and to have empathy for the decisions they make — however bad they may be — as a result of that life.

Where the film goes awry is when it segues from coming-of-age drama into a crime thriller, as Shui Qing tries to come up with a way to help her mother pay off the nefarious characters who have shown up to disrupt their family reunion. The plot may have been ripped from the headlines, but that doesn’t make it feel any less ridiculous, especially in comparison with the authenticity of the setting and the day-to-day interactions of the characters. The noir-inspired aspects of the story feel as though they belong in a different movie, one without as much natural emotional heft as The Old Town Girls; this film doesn’t need those added complications, as it is already complex enough.

Conclusion

An imperfect yet still intriguing debut feature, The Old Town Girls signals Shen Yu as a director to watch.

Old Town Girls is available for streaming on VOD on December 23, 2022.

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