NeoL

―― The first question we have here is, why did you choose the word “sister” as the title of the film? What do you think “sister” refers to in the film? Does it separate a female character from a motherly figure? Does it document the growth of a girl and a woman? How did you come up with this title?


Ruoxin: Our crew had our discussion on the title and we decided that “sister” is an identity that directly reveals the sex of the character, just like a brother, an uncle or a father points at the male characteristic of the person. We wanted to lay it out clearly that this film is “female”. And “sister” is an identity that makes the viewer wonder, what kind of a woman is this “sister” going to be? Is there going to be development of the character or is it going to be one of those old stories in which a sister is someone who sacrifices herself for her environment. That is why we wanted to use a title that does not hide away the sex of the main character. This is a story of a female.





―― In the film, we have Anran and her aunt, two generations of sisters, going about with their lives and making their own choices. In a story set in a specific cultural and historical background, how did you manage to tell the story through the language of film? How did you design the story and what were your concerns?


Ruoxin: First of all, it really is a strange feeling going through the process. Anran and her aunt reflects each other with some similarities and overlaps, but they are very different people, yet both characters made me think, who do they remind me of? A female character. I thought about my mother, my grandmother, and women around me who are part of my everyday life. So later it is not surprising to me that I can find myself in those two characters as well. They are real people and they exist. We wanted to tell the story of what we see and how we feel through the film, although there are limitations. The story took place in less than 100 days. We need to wrap up the confrontations and problems of the reality of Anran. There were things I felt like I must say. Things that happen in daily life. Everything Anran encounters takes her to the attached title sister. She thinks about what a sister is and what a sister should do and she became sensitive to things happening around her. I wanted that to be the story of someone who is relatable to the audience. I wanted Anran to be like the girl next door. Someone you see on the streets and you don’t know what’s going on in her life. You are looking at her life but you can’t get in. That was my initial perspective of the character.

――What kind of difficulties have you encountered during the process?


Ruoxin: We have edited our scripts so many times. That was difficult. But we we started shooting, just because we all had some shared understanding of the film and what it really is about, it was easier to shoot.

――We find the male characters in the film intriguing in terms of how they were helping to build the story. What are you ideas on the male characters? Her uncle and her brother. What were your challenges dealing with them?


Ruoxin: The challenging part of building these male characters were, I try to think that every person has different sides of their personality and I wanted to portray as many sides as I could as I tell the story. It is not black or white. I wanted to lay out everything about the character, to make them human. That is the perspective. I wanted each character to be recognized as human. And of course, I think about their functions as movie character. The uncle is a lot like our uncles. Everybody (within Chinese culture) knows an uncle like that. The uncle is someone who has lived and knows what he is dealing with and has his reasons for his actions. Very complex. And the brother is still growing, his longing for protections along with his other actions are his formation of his person. When we were making the story, we wanted this film to be not so far away from reality. We wanted to take just half a step above reality. So when we were depicting Anran’s brother as a character, we wanted to show his own characteristics and his control over the character. He is not yet a man and his needs were his instincts to find out if his sister would leave him, if someone could take care of him. The need every infant has, pure and simple.
So in terms of making characters, I think the rule is to go from the perspective of a human being.





――This film is filled with women’s emotions like anger, sadness, hope and despair. How do you illustrate these obscure and deep emotions in the story, especially when portraying Anran and her aunt. What are you considering when you were shooting specific scenes?


Ruoxin: We shot the film in Chengdu, Szechuan. I think the characters in the film reflects the characteristics of the women who grew up and lived there. Women who are upfront about their emotions and also women who were gentle and caring. I think all these are shown in Anran’s aunt performance. I think that women’s anger sadness, their pain and their suffering is oftentimes taken out from movies. Women are not left with spaces to think on their own terms. That has not been discussed and shown in films in recent years. I wanted to show both the destiny of Anran and her aunt as if they were mirroring each other’s life. As aunt is remembering her own time, she understood that time has changed and that Anran doesn’t have to make the same choice. The way she treated Anran has shown much her own growth as well.





―― Last but not least, thinking about the ending when Anran makes her decision, why did you choose that to be the ending and what do you think women’s independence is nowadays as you tell the story?


Ruoxin: About the ending, I try to be as realistic as possible. So when we get to the ending of the film, it is natural to think that a 25-year-old sister could not have make any decisions in just 100 days. I think she gets hesitated when the adopting family told her that she would never get to see her brother again. She has bonded with her brother in just a few days, she gets softer in an intimate relationship. She was not able to have it with her parents, and now she gets the warmth form her relationship with her brother. It is reasonable to think that she doesn’t want to be separated from her brother. I really think that it is important for everyone, especially girls to understand that your feelings are valid, and if you want intimacy and family, you don’t have to force yourself to be on your own. What I like about Anran as a character is that, she never cuts off her aunt and her uncle, eventually her brother. Although it was not easy to communicate and they have lots of confrontations, she doesn’t give up on communicating feelings and thoughts. And she has a boyfriend, the idea that she grows from intimate relationships gives her even more strength to be an independent female. That gives her the courage to move on and make her decision. I wanted to show that in the ending, which is the individual is not one person, but how each person goes on and pursue a self that is more involving and broad, and that hopefully would allow us to be free and loved.


――Thank you so much for wonderful answers and the amazing film.

text Baihe Sun（https://www.instagram.com/niuniu_sun/）