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| All Images Courtesy of Blade Vista Public Relations |
“Ah Girl” details the daily life and struggles of a mischievous, yet deeply kind-hearted, seven-year-old girl, who struggles to navigate her parents’ separation during the 1990s. Ah Girl (Ong Xuan Jing) spends her weekdays at her father's (James Seah) modest flat, together with her younger, slightly boyish sister Ah Tian (Sydney Wong), and their ailing, easily worn down grandmother (Doreen Toh). The father is a man of few words, one who works night shifts to sustain their financially unstable family, but also one who is emotionally unavailable when it comes to his two daughters. During the weekends, Ah Girl and Ah Tian meet their frail and fickle mother (Carrie Wong) who spoils them with food and presents, but, very much like their father, she does not know how nor does she care to properly communicate with her children.
Ah Girl, much like any other child her age, just wants to be accepted by her peers, to play carefree with her friends and her little sister. In other words, she just wants to be allowed to be a kid. She goes about catching spiders, daydreaming of participating in beauty pageants, selling gums to her classmates – notably, two years after Singapore’s national ban, and drawing with Ah Tian. She cherishes her long hair and prefers to be called “Swee Swee” over “Eileen”. However, the turbulent life of the adults around her and their inability to deal with their problems in a mature way, burden little Ah Girl with responsibilities no child should have to worry about.
Over the span of a year, Ah Girl is concerned about her family's financial situation and takes it upon herself to fix things. She refuses to let Ah Tian be given away to another family. She tries to make peace with her parents’ numerous new relationships and whims. Soon enough, she realizes that the turbulent life that her family is leading is not the norm. And, for an empathetic child like Ah Girl, that's even worse than the reality she has to live in.
Screenwriter and director, Ang Geck Geck Priscilla, already a recipient of great praise for her Ah Girl trilogy (Broken Crayon, Little Pigs, and Happy Birthday), including winning the Best Short Film award at the Singapore Short Film Festival in 2013 for “Broken Crayon”, shares about her feature-length debut: “I wanted to tell a story about a broken family, from the perspective of a child going through the pressure and having to make important decisions that will affect her life to come. This is also a story about self love. I hope that Ah Girl's story will show her tenacity in wanting to break away from the vicious cycle of trans-generational trauma”.
It's truly exhilarating to witness Ong Xuan Jing carry the weight not only of said generational trauma as Ah Girl, but also that of a brilliant performance. Prepare to hang onto your seats as prodigy Ong Xuan Jing tackles one adventure after the other, occasionally spreading laughter and endearment with her charm and wit, and every now and then shock and empathy at the disproportionate hardships she has to deal with, while her parents are off fighting demons of their own. The same praise can be applied to Sydney Wong who is just as radiant. Wong's performance instantly pulls at your heartstrings and makes it impossible not to root for these multidimensional yet adorable children. From beginning to end, the two stars set the tone of the film and adorn the screen with two characters you can't help but feel compassion for.
Less talked about, but definitely as impressive are the performances of James Seah and Doreen Toh. The duo does an excellent job at portraying the intricate dynamics of familial bonds and shared struggles. Their conflicting interests shape the story and the lives of the two children in a way that makes Ah Girl feel like she is the only one who can do something about it. “All adults are liars”, little Ah Girl screams at the top of her lungs, frustrated with their family's inability to take responsibility for their actions. And, it's the same Ah Girl who prays for her mother's happiness, portrayed by the versatile Carrie Wong. Wong’s approach as the struggling mother burdened with the double standards of society – admittedly it's always Ah Pa who gets away with buying gifts and doing less than the bare minimum, whereas Ah Ma is expected to always show up – is nuanced yet crystal clear in its messaging. All in all, the film’s depiction of a complicated, torn-apart family and the consequences of a couple's separation on their children manages to come off as extremely naturalistic, but definitely not clichéd.
Another one of the many things that the film gets right is deciding to shoot in 4:3 from the child's perspective. The claustrophobia caused by the decisions that the adults around Ah Girl make is captured spectacularly. It's practically impossible not to get immersed in the magical yet unnecessarily harsh world of the protagonist. You can’t help feeling sorry for Ah Girl whenever she tries to regain control of a situation when it's not even her responsibility to do so. Worst of all, you can't help but worry about the outcome of the perilous circumstances she often gets herself into. All of that, achieved through the endearing, refined cinematography and shot composition of the film.
It needs to be noted that the film is at its core a female-lead project. From director and producer Ang, to producers Charlyn Ng and Wendy Lie, all the way to editor Hoping Chen (Best Film Editing Award for Bel Ami, 61st Golden Horse Film Festival, 2024), “Ah Girl” carries the experiences and expertise of successful industry professionals in a largely male-dominated field. And that on its own is no small feature.
If one were to describe Ah Girl's rough and unpredictable journey that would be “resonant”. You don’t have to share experiences with the protagonist to empathize with her struggles. Director Ang and her team do an excellent job at creating an atmosphere and conveying that very feeling of hopelessness to the audience through their framing of events. Thankfully, Aunty Japan (Vivianne Li) is there as perhaps the only ray of sunshine for our little Ah Girl and Ah Tian, transforming the film into a slice-of-life narrative, and a heavy-hitting one at that. It's truly a testament to the emotional maturity of children that is often dismissed by adults due to the naivety that shrouds our perception of childhood. Whether Ah Girl is successful in her quest to restore balance within her family and heal her inner world, you will have to see for yourself. And, who knows, you might get to heal your inner child in the process, too.
About the director
Ang Geck Geck Priscilla (洪玉桔) is a Singaporean filmmaker who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2012. Over the past few years, Geck has directed a plethora of critically acclaimed short films and commercial projects, including ones for OCBC Bank, POSB Bank, Hotel Jen Tanglin, and Mastercard Regional. Her debut short film BROKEN CRAYON (the first instalment of the AH GIRL trilogy) won the Best Short Film award at the Singapore Short Film Festival in 2013, followed by LITTLE PIGS and HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Geck is also an alumna of the prestigious Busan Asian Film Academy (AFA), where she trained as a directing fellow, and she was also appointed The NXT Head of Juries for The Crowbar Awards in 2019, overseeing the Film and Photography categories. In 2021, she created ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE, a short-form series which went on to be nominated at Series Mania 2021 in the Short Form Competition category. Geck's creative work focuses on stories that foreground the vulnerable, shift perspectives, and contribute to a kinder world. Her feature-length debut, AH GIRL, was awarded the Open SEA Fund Award in 2018 at the Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC), and further explored the emotional universe of her young protagonist.