Brief History of a Family

and carried our parents'unbearable and unreasonable expectations in study or future or anything, and in asian household parents often compare their kid to their best friend to show how well he is doing in studies, why can't you be like him. See how well mannered he is, learn from him. This is exactly what happens here but with more psychological drama that keeps engaged till the end. Yan Shuo is Wei's best friend, but Yan Shuo is a very mysterious kid, we never really see his parents or his home, whatever we hear about them is through Yan Shuo, he claims that his mother is dead and his father is alcoholic and often physically abuses him. So after school yan shuo spends most time in Wei's home, as time goes wei's parents are really charmed and impressed by Yan Shuo and now form a connection with him, and it will only get stronger as one tragedy strikes in the story. Which results in Wei's parents adopting Yan shuo as their son, this is where all the troubles begin and secrets crawl out. Xilun who plays Shuo, is an impenetrable fortress for audience, very difficult to decode his intentions, at first instinct we may be to doubt the sincerity of Shuo’s actions, to assume that he has orchestrated everything to play a victim card, cooked up fake story and benefit from the sources the wei's family. But besides gaining the adults’ favor, there are no signs that Shuo wants to deliberately push Wei out of the picture or cause him harm to replace him. This makes it even more difficult as the movie goes on, keeping suspense lingering on. I loved how the social one child policy provides a great impact here, wei's parents never had a second child because of one child policy by the government, but now that law no longer exists, They interpret Shuo’s arrival as an opportunity for a new beginning. As a second son, There’s no longer a need for them to mold Wei into a model student with aspirations, because now they have another kid who is smarter and always behaves like an ideal kid. But it causes a great rift between these two friends and it slowly leads us to a shocking ending leaving an open ending with the question on the background and real intentions of Shuo. Elevated by its consistent suspense, eerie tension, with sobering pace and visual inventiveness, the film delivers one of the gripping family drama that feels so relevant and haunting at times.