Midi Z	...	(Director)
Ke-Xi Wu, Midi Z	...	(Writer)
Ke-Xi Wu	...	Nina Wu
Vivian Sung	...	Kiki
Kimi Hsia	...	Girl No.3
Li-Ang Chang	...	Dong Fu
Jen-Shuo Cheng	...	Nina's Assistant
Ping-Chun Cheng	...	Nina's Father
Melody Chiu	...	Audition Girl
Amanda Chou	...	Girl No.2
Tai-chi Fan-Chiang	...	Restaurant Waiter
Ying-Hsuan Hsieh	...	Casting Director
Shang-Ho Huang	...	Assistant Director
Lee-zen Lee	...	Mark
Phoebe Lin	...	Girl No.5
Sean Lin	...	Actor
Fabian Loo	...	Producer's Assistant
Vicci Pan	...	Audition Girl's Mother
Ming-Shuai Shih	...	Director
Shau-Ching Sung	...	Nina's Uncle
Giong Lim	...	Composer
Florian Zinke	...	Cinematographer

Comments: Early on I stopped this and came to LBd to see if it was made by some famous director I wasn't aware of. Not that it's super great, but the photography and framing of shots feels personal (auteurish) and very confident

I had kept the film at a distance for a long time because posters with someone brandishing a weapon do that

Said weapon brandishing shot happens early and is a magnificent, long tracking shot which sets the stage well for the peculiar character we'll spend the next ninety minutes with

Wu Ke-Xi's frail build and occasionally freaky posture, her bangs, and the V-shaped wrinkle on her forehead between her eyebrows do the heavy lifting. Overall an outstanding performance because it's fragile, capable of failing at any moment but never does

Films about making a film or that feature acting "acting" fascinate me. Only the good ones, though. Bad actors can't pull them off, and self indulgent, message-y bad ones don't kill the genre for the good ones

Therein the rub: deducting a half star from this otherwise masterpiece of a film for a couple moments/themes that seemed shoved onto it because they might be true/trendy. Maybe a result of Wu Ke-Xi also being a writer of the film? I'm not sold by how true to life or proper in perspective a film may be

The ending? Both a bold move that forces some reconsideration-ing and a rather Captain Obvious rookie mistake. Doesn't ruin the film, endings rarely do. It's the beginning of the film that gave me pause as to whether this was the work of a major talent. Beginnings are more important. The ending left me with the feeling: "ah, just some guy"


Summary: Nina Wu, a girl who leaves small theatre company in the country for the big city in pursuit of her actress dream. The wait seems to be endless, as she lives a lonely and repressed life combined with hereditary condition, she suffe...