娇娃们

The short and feature are different stories but based on the same world and similar characters in which I saw a lot of specificity and sincerity coming from the filmmaker’s personal life and perspective. It’s the director’s personal voice that makes both the two films special, worth watching. I really appreciate how bold and honest the director is to tell the stories.

But I love MAMANS way more than MIGNONNES. I said they were similar characters in the short and feature, not the same because I think both the mother's and daughter’s characters are much more successful in the short. Amy’s character is shallower and more symbolic than Aida’s character even though there’s a whole feature depicting Amy.

What I love in the short is the bond between the mother and daughter. I was deeply touched the moment when Aida cries under the bed hearing her mother cry. The girl’s performance is amazing to connect the audience with the emotion of feeling the pain of the closest person at the same time restraining it for her. She empathies so much with her mother but she couldn’t make any sound or her mother will be hurt again if she knows her daughter’s witnessing this. This single moment tells so much about Aida’s character who’s sensitive, sympathetic, and mature than she should be at her age.

This moment leads to another moment when Aida sees her brother who’s definitely less sensitive than her enjoying the conversation with their father and the “new mother” while their mother’s working alone in the kitchen. Aida spits into the plate to express her anger. Then it leads to the moment she takes away the baby after her father slapped her. When the mother comes to asks why. It’s clearly written on her face that “I was doing all this for you.” All these moments are strong and natural. We can totally feel Aida’s strong motivation and deeply connect with her. I also love the smoke at the beginning and end of the film which beautifully embodies the bond between the mother and daughter.

However, this mother-daughter bond and the depth of characters are lost to some extent in the feature. I appreciate that the feature repeats the strongest moment in the short when Amy weeps under the bed even though I personally don’t think her performance is as strong. But throughout the feature we never saw the father and new mother, instead, there’s a symbolic grandmother and a few symbolic ceremonies explaining everything verbally, which I don’t think is a good choice. And the elements of ghosts in the feature to show Amy’s fear also feels abrupt and symbolic to me, not as authentic as the smoke in the short. Aida’s character feels grounded in the short because we directly saw what she’s suffering and her connection with her mother. When this part is weakened in the feature, her motivation to get out of the world and join the fancy girls is also weakened. The consequence is that Amy becomes a flat, and even a bad girl who steals aunt’s jewels, cousin’s phone, mother’s money, who pushes her rival into the river to get her position.

MIGNONNES receives criticism because of the children’s sexuality in the film. I think it’s ok if the filmmakers’ intention was to show the bold reality. But it actually bored me a few times watching the feature just because I didn’t care about the main character as much as in the short.