Divided into three hypnotically photographed, thematically linked vignettes, award-winning filmmaker Zero Chou offers audiences an unconventional look at gender and sexual orientation in Taiwan with her third feature film, Drifting Flowers. Although it opens with a fascinatingly heartfelt tale of two sisters struggling to stay together in a society with prejudices regarding disability and homosexuality, the film’s real discovery is in the terrifically naturalistic performance by university student turned actress Chao Yi-lan as Chalkie, the good-hearted, tomboy accordion player who appears in two of the film’s segments.
Using a constantly moving train as a symbol for journey and femininity throughout, writer/director Zero Chou transports us as her heroines drift along like tough but delicate flowers blooming in their own time while navigating through self-discovery, familial duty, and friendly loyalty with the ultimate destination of love in all of its incarnations.
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