LEE Mi-mi
International Premiere
After her boyfriend refuses to take responsibility for her pregnancy, Hsiao-Peng jumps into the ocean out of desperation. Fortunately, she is safely rescued, and her parents arrange for her to stay in Madam Pai¡¯s maternity home for young single mothers.
Hsiao-Peng becomes pregnant, but her boyfriend refuses to take responsibility, leading her to attempt suicide. After being rescued, she ends up in an unmarried mothers¡¯ shelter run by Madam Pai. There, she interacts with various women who are in the shelters for many different reasons. As her due date approaches, Hsiao-Peng and the women at the shelter face decisions about their futures. Unmarried Mothers, a 1980 film by Lee Mi-mi, is part of the Taiwan Urban Women Trilogy, including Evening News and Girls¡¯ School (1982), screened at SIWFF last year. Although Unmarried Mothers does not explicitly deal with queer themes like Girls¡¯ School, it shares the common theme of portraying women¡¯s community stories that address serious social issues within the framework of melodrama. The film¡¯s main subject is unwed pregnancy. While it provides a relatively safe romantic and happy ending for the protagonist, the film examines the multiple oppressions young women face in 20th-century East Asian society. Unlike many melodramas of its time, Hsiao-Peng and her friends do not fall into unnecessary sentimentality and guilt but instead choose their paths independently. [Djuna]
Code | Time | Theater | Grade |
---|---|---|---|
209 | 2023-08-26 | 11:00 - 12:34 | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup 9 | |
512 | 2023-08-29 | 16:30 - 18:04 | MEGABOX SangamWorldcup 3 |
Mi-Mi Lee made her directorial debut in 1972 with Pure Love after working in the industry for years. She continued to self-produce three features in the early 1980s, dubbed as the ¡°Taiwanese Urban Female Trilogy¡±. She was highly involved in the creation of the script and worked behind the camera.
Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute | YUN Rita | ritayun@tfai.org.tw |