“Primetime” and Emptiness
This is not McDonald’s. This is something different.

Chien Wei-ssu documents her and her friends' perspective, studying abroad in Ohio State University, being there taiwanese students keen of structuralism, Claude Levi-Strauss and Jean Rouch. She delves into women's relation to men, to women, to their own body, to the menstrual cycle, historical national identity, gender identity and sexuality. In the process, she captures the silence and displacement of living overseas, as well as the intense intimacy between friends. Waiting for a menstrual period that never comes becomes a metaphor of suspension and the freedom of living in another country.
This is not McDonald’s. This is something different.
Two movies that do a fantastic job in conveying the ongoing struggle for racial justice are Selma (2014) and Just Mercy (2019).
We have a long way to go with LGBT representation in film, especially when it comes to LGBT characters of color and trans characters.
The character of Mulan is one of Disney’s best heroines. She’s brave, kicks butt, and has a kill count. What other Disney character has killed hundreds of Huns by crushing them with an avalanche? No one.
It’s dark, uncomfortable, and there are things that don’t make sense.
As a frequent “the book was better” extoller, this movie was well worth the watch.