Her Story, a comedy about a newly unemployed single mother with a daughter and their young female neighbour in Shanghai, has taken the country by storm.
In less than two weeks, the movie has grossed more than 300m yuan (£32.5m) and is predicted to double that this month, a total that would make it the highest-grossing film of the year in China.
That slot is currently taken by Yolo, another female-led comedy that was also directed by a woman.
Commentators say their success reveals a growing trend in China, where films directed by women, centred on female experiences, are finding greater commercial success.
"I had a similar feeling watching it as I did when watching Barbie," said Luo Xinran, a 32-year-old woman in Zhejiang province. The accessible representations of feminism were particularly refreshing, she said, as they had been absent in Chinese cinema until recently.
This story is from the December 02, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the December 02, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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