"Unlike THE FALLS's glossy patina and beneficent ideation, AMERICAN GIRL goes for the jugular in dissecting a nuclear family's internecine strife and support, with a sideswipe leveling at Taiwan education system's approbation of the outmoded corporal punishment. Fen's "American girl" tag is more a source of discrimination than something she can boast of, one of the examples evince Roan's crystal-clear discernment of Fen's predicament. Dexterously shot by Giorgos Valsamis within finite space, AMERICAN GIRL's cinematography reflects an alluring veracity on top of a rich textural substrate, it helps to ease its audience into the the family's early 2000 milieu like a charm. Tellingly, one cannot over-stress the accomplishment of the cast, especially Lam and Fan, grappling with the heavy-lifting with cracking efficacy and potency, Lam's pent-up emotion crackles consistently from scene to scene whereas Fan pulls off the cardinal challenge where a misty-eyed Fen communing with an intractable white horse like a real pro."
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