Nina Wu – Juo ren mi mi (2019)

Directed by: Midi Z | 103 minutes | drama | Actors: Ke-Xi Wu, Vivian Sung, Kimi Hsia, Li-Ang Chang, Jen-Shuo Cheng, Ping-Chun Cheng, Ying-Xuan Hsieh, Shang-Ho Huang, Lee-zen Lee, Ming-Shuai Shih, Shau- Ching Sung, Chih-Wei Tang, Chuan Wang, Moon Wang, An-Shun Yu

‘Nina Wu’ is a Thai psychological drama about a young ambitious actress who, after a long wait, gets her breakthrough in a feature film. For this film, however, she had to endure a lot of humiliation. Partly because of this – and probably also because of events in the family and relational sphere – she ends up in a kind of psychosis, in which she can no longer distinguish between reality and fantasy.

The screenplay of ‘Nina Wu’ was written by actress Wu Ke-Xi (who also plays the title role here), who based it on her own experiences as a starting actress. It was therapeutic for her, but director friend Midi Z (in whose film ‘The Road to Mandalay’ she starred) also saw a film in it. Wu Ke-Xi was initially spurred to write her story by scandals in the world of Korean entertainment (the suicide of Jang Ja-yeon in 2009 for example), but when the #MeToo movement took off in 2017, it fueled her desire. to complete her screenplay.

The scenes in ‘Nina Wu’ aren’t all chronological, nor is it clear whether it’s the actress’s fantasy we’re seeing, or a twisted version of reality. The viewer is sometimes deliberately misled, but at the same time there are hints: characters have a different haircut or different clothing. Midi Z has tried to turn this realistic story into a genre film, but he misses the mark here a bit. Instead of the mystery bringing us closer to the character and interested in her fate, it drives her further away from us. There is little that binds us to the actress. Scenes with her family or former lover don’t help with that, maybe she’ll be late or that wouldn’t have worked at all, who knows.

Midi Z fills the film with symbolism: from the amateur play Le Petit Prince to the hotel room in which Nina Wu has her traumatic experience. It is room 1408 and that could be a reference to the Harvey Weinstein-produced Stephen King film from 2007. There are more King references in it, for example the hall through which Nina Wu walks is reminiscent of ‘The Shining’ and expects you half that a wave of blood is coming. But David Lynch also seems to be a source of inspiration, because of the red curtains from “Twin Peaks” and the ‘Mulholland Drive’/’Inland Empire’ vibe that the film exudes from time to time. Or, for example, the fact that the film is set around ‘the year of the dog’ (2018), which causes Nina’s brother to bark like a dog – something that deeply disturbs Nina (invariably called Sufen by people outside the set), as it turns out later. Why.

Despite its flaws, ‘Nina Wu’ is an important film. It is a vehement indictment of the system in which talented women are subjected to the whims of powerful (male) producers and filmmakers. Let’s hope it doesn’t take more movies like ‘Nina Wu’ to stop these atrocities.