3.5/5 stars
A widow in her sixties with a pair of estranged daughters is confronted with a difficult decision following a family tragedy in Huang Xi’s thoughtful drama Daughter’s Daughter.
Winner of the 2024 Golden Horse Awards prize for best screenplay at a ceremony in Taiwan in November, the film explores the strained relationships between parents and their children in a society that is losing sight of traditional filial duties.
Veteran actress Sylvia Chang Ai-chia gives one of her most nuanced and understated performances in recent memory as Jin, an ageing Taiwanese widow who is forced to travel to New York after her younger daughter, Zuer (Eugenie Liu Yi-er), dies in a car accident with her lesbian partner, Jiayi (Tracy Chou).
The couple were trying for a baby via IVF treatment and a viable embryo survives them, with Jin now the legal guardian. While wrestling with the grief of losing her child, Jin is burdened with the impossible task of deciding the fate of her as-yet unborn grandchild.
The tragedy also brings her back into contact with Emma (Karena Lam Ka-yan), the elder daughter she had when still a teenager and subsequently gave up for adoption.