Movie Review: 'The Old Town Girls' Mothers-Daughters and Neo-Noir Mystery
A mother and daughter get caught up in a modern noir crime drama in The Old Town Girls
The Old Town Girls (2022)
Directed by Shen Yu
Written by Yujie Qiu, Shen Yu
Starring Regina Wan, Li Gengxi, Jue Hwang
Release Date December 23rd, 2022
Published December 22nd, 2022
The Old Town Girls begins on a disjointed note. Co-writer and Director Shen Yu throws you immediately into chaos. Three adults are searching for two missing teenage daughters. One insists that they need to find the supposed kidnappers of their daughters to deliver a large ransom. One of the father's decides that waiting around isn't worth it and decides they should go to the police. The mother of one of the girls, is very much against this idea but goes along reluctantly. At the police station, things descend into even further chaos before we are thrust back in time several weeks with little warning.
With little in the way of context clues we must determine that we are now a few weeks in the past, prior to the events of the opening scene. The two young women who are missing in the opening scene, presumed kidnapped, are High Schoolers and loosely they are friends. Shu Qing (Li Gengxi) is a desperately shy young woman, an outcast both at school and at home. In a heartbreaking scene, we watch as Shu Qing arrives to her modest home only to be told by her step-mother that she needs to stay out while grandparents are there. Shu Qing is not their granddaughter and they don't want to dine with a stranger. Ouch.
Retreating to the streets, Shu Qing manages to run into her mother, Qu Ting (Regina Wan). A woman of great beauty and charisma, Qu Ting is found having just arrived in town, living in a rundown former theater. We learn that she left her daughter and husband when Shu Qing was only a year old. Qu Ting's dream was to become a ballet dancer but her dreams never panned out. It's unclear what she did while she lived in the big city but we do know that she's deeply in debt to some very dangerous men. That story becomes clear later and informs the opening of the movie but you must see the movie to find the connection.
The Old Town Girls is a neo-noir with strong sensibilities as an unconventional mystery. Before it becomes a mystery however, it's a heart rending story of a young girl who is desperate to have her mother in her life. Never having had a loving mother in her life has left a deep longing in Shu Qing and her longing drives much of the drama of The Old Town Girls. It's a lovely performance filled with heartbreaking sadness, brief moments of reverie, and a shocking surprise near the end.
Regina Wan is a revelation in The Old Town Girls. A blur of charismatic energy, Wan seems to treat being a mom as a suit of clothes she can slip in and out of at a whim. Sometimes she loves being a mom and being part of her daughter's life. Sometimes she is cold and cruel for reasons that are unclear. She seems to love having Shu Qing's undying admiration but she's incapable of returning such a display of emotion or vulnerability. Meanwhile, Shu Qing is little more than her vulnerability and that makes for nerve wracking combination.
The Old Town Girls is for fans of unconventional mysteries and messy familial relations. See it for the performances of Li Gengxi and Regina Wan. Both of these terrific actresses deliver exceptional performances. The direction is solid, the storytelling is kind of mesmerizing for the amount of work required of the audience to follow context clues to follow the unfolding, out of order, mystery. I recommend it.
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About the Creator
Sean Patrick
Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.
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