A birthday party. A father's final gift. Fifteen minutes that'll wreck you.
Unable to cope with the accidental loss of his wife, an out of work father struggles to give his daughter the happiest day of her life before executing a plan.
Acting
Xiao-Feng Qiu's restrained agony
Direction
Hsieh's patient, devastating composition
Writing
Economy of dread in every frame
Director
Chun-Yi Hsieh
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Chun-Yi Hsieh made this as his graduate thesis at NYU Tisch, shot in a single day with borrowed equipment.
The film's power comes from what's withheld: we never see the wife's death, only Jie's inability to process it.
TW
