Educational Media Reviews Online

Night Girl provides an overview of 17-year old Han Lin’s life in contemporary Peking. Han Lin is an all-night go-go dancer who returns to her home each morning to share cramped quarters with four generations of family. This is a close knit family with seemingly no secrets. Shot in a cinema verite style, Yingli Ma’s footage features Han Lin at the dance club, with her friends, boyfriend, and family, but never probes too deeply. Brief interviews with her family clarify that they don’t approve of Han Lin’s job, but need the money because of economic difficulties. Han Lin’s mother also worked at the club. Han Lin accepts her role, doesn’t think her job is “indecent,” and laughs with her friends. She is familiar with drugs and corruption in the disco world.

Night Girl presents a vibrant slice of life, despite the difficulties, featuring close-up views of both poor and modern Peking. Unfortunately, few facts about women in Beijing, economic realities, or family life are presented to give this film any context or research value. There’s no narration to guide the viewer, and the 45-minute film drifts in parts. Though this video has some technical and artistic merit, a better script would have made this a more “poignant story” as the accompanying literature says. It’s too understated—there’s no punch.

According to the video’s accompanying literature, Night Girl is part of the “Girls Around the World” series which features 17 year-old girls across the globe. Perhaps this video would be more useful as part of a series on cross cultural adolescence. It would require a moderator. By itself, however, Night Girl is not recommended for academic library collections.