Someone to Talk to

Liu Yulin’s first feature is that rare beast: a truly honest and perceptive film about relationships. In the opening sequence, set at a local government registration office, one couple is trying to file marriage paperwork (“We can talk about everything!”) while another is trying to get divorced (“We have nothing to say!”). Ten years later, the first couple has effectively transformed into the second. When cuckolded husband Aiguo sets out to catch his wife having an affair, he ends up destroying two marriages. Meanwhile his 39-year-old sister re-enters the dating game, desperately seeking someone of her own to talk to. Liu Yulin, who studied filmmaking in New York, chose to adapt a beloved novel by her father because she grew up with the characters and knows them inside out, which is apparent throughout her debut.