1 Girl Infinite

Two teenage girls, Yin Jia and Tong Tong, live together in this colour-drenched vision of Changsha, China. When Tong Tong drifts away and falls in with a drug dealer, Yin Jia’s love for her means she’ll risk everything to keep Tong Tong by her side.

Yin Jia and Tong Tong (Xuanyu Chen and writer-director Lilly Hu), have carved out a life together: shoplifting for food, joyously pelting oranges at cars and sharing a bed. An intensely, physically intimate bond ties them together within the walls of their small apartment, but in front of other people, Tong Tong appears cold and unfeeling towards Yin Jia. When Tong Tong falls in romantically with a drug dealer, Yin Jia’s devotion to her means she is prepared to sacrifice all that she has.

Based on a true experience, Lilly Hu’s 1 Girl Infinite is a vivid portrait of girlhood and the all-consuming nature of teenage love, obsession and frustrated desire. Hu’s hometown of Changsha – its beauty salons, internet cafés, shopping centres and hotel lobbies – is a character all of its own, in a film that feels unexpectedly tender towards its setting, no matter how much its characters dream of being elsewhere. Cinematographer Shane Ainsworth’s handheld camera is both intimate and claustrophobic, while Lou Kun’s sparkly, synthy sound design feels dreamy and girlish even in the film’s most unsettling moments. An assured and visually stylish debut.

– Xuanlin Tham

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