Frequent collaborator with Hou Hsiao-Hsien, actress/model Shu Qi (Millennium Mambo) makes her directorial debut with this story about a withdrawn Taiwanese girl dealing with the return of her mother’s violent ex-boyfriend in 1988 Keelung Harbor. Lin Hsiao-lee grows up in confusion and longs to escape the darkness; then she finds an actual friend in Li Li-li, a worldly new transfer student who takes Hsiao-lee under her wing. The film “is a carefully observed, female-driven story, whose aesthetics and sensibility come highly inspired by the delicate framing of Hou [Hsiao-hsien]. Girl is a promising debut.” –South China Post