A large contingent of Mandarin-speaking movie fans attended the October 30 screening of The Unseen Sister, playing in the Competition section of the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival. A mystery thriller based on a best-selling novel, the movie’s main promotional hook is popular actor Zhao Liying in the lead role of Qiao Yan, also a very popular actor who seems to have tired of the limelight and is thinking of not signing a new contract with her management — but not for reasons that are immediately apparent.
 
Qiao has a secret that involves her older sister, who lives in Myanmar with her husband, a ne’er-do-well quasi-gangster who flees the country when his sizable debts come due. The sister, played by Huang Jue, finds her way to Beijing, ostensibly to visit her sibling, whom she hasn’t seen in 17 years, but actually to locate her spouse, who seems to be in the Chinese capital as well.
 
In addition to Zhao, director Midi Z was on hand for the post-screening Q&A session. Having himself been born in Myanmar before moving to Taiwan, he has an affinity for the material, which he talked about in response to a question from the moderator. “When I read the original story for the first time, I wanted to adapt it as a movie,” he said. “But not so much because of the setting. My mother and older sisters had the same kind of powerful personalities as the two sisters in the film. They were the backbone of my family. My mother was stronger than my father, and my sisters worked to support my educational ambitions. It was the strength of women that I wanted to depict.”
 
Another aspect that resonated with Midi Z was the way the main character had made a successful life in the big city without any help. “She had gone through many difficulties even without family support,” he said. “I wanted to tell that story, because there are many people like that in today’s China, and also throughout the world, I imagine.”
 
One audience member wanted to know what the most enjoyable part of creating the film had been, as well as the most difficult. The director casually replied that, “Today is the most enjoyable part. Shooting and editing is half of the film. The other half is watching an audience enjoy it, and then finding out why they enjoyed it.”
 
Zhao, however, said she thoroughly enjoyed the filming process. “[The director] requested that my performance be as realistic as possible,” she said. “Not having to overact is enjoyable to me, but the most difficult part was playing such a dark character, because I’m normally light-hearted and cheerful. It was hard to manage my feelings.”
 
One young man asked the director which of the actors was a better performer, Qiao Yan (the name of the character) or the Zhao Liying (the actor). Avoiding having to play favorites with his real actors, Midi Z said without hesitation that it was the fictional actor, Qiao Yan, who was the best actor, “because she is living her best life in the city while hiding a secret from the world.”
 
Eventually, one Mandarin-speaking woman addressed the various themes, including the border tensions between Myanmar and China, traditional gender roles, sexual and power harassment in show business, and the difficulties that women have finding a position in urban China. Of these, she wondered, which was central to the director’s vision?
 
“Whichever theme resonates most with you is going to be the most central theme,” he said. “But to me the final scene, showing the two sisters finally finding what they’ve always been looking for means the most to me, because it represents freedom and hope for the future. Until that point, life for them had been unfair and cruel. And that isn’t the case only for women. We are all forced into situations, by our parents, by society, that we don’t want to be in. The real theme is how to live honestly in the warmth of the sun. If you watch this film, you’ll find what you need.”
 
Q&A Session: Competition
The Unseen Sister
Guests: Midi Z (Director/Screenplay/Editor), Zhao Liying (Actor)