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the most fundamental reason why "bone sister" was not released in mainland china is the subject matter.

because its content is the same as "uncle uncle".

although many viewers have different interpretations of the emotions of the two lower-class women in "bone sister", through the heroine lingling's son's memories of shishi many years later, he clearly said "that's the person i like (in the original film, it is cantonese 'zhongyi')".

shishi's final choice and her words to lingling, "i want to be with you forever," as she traveled through time and space, make people feel helpless and regretful, and start to reflect on whether they always see the world in black and white.

as a realistic film, "bone sister" has a content that is not suitable for the mainland's "physique" nowadays:

a masseuse, especially one who helps customers relieve their sexual desires.

what's more, there was actually a spark of love between the masseuses...

this seems a bit difficult.

but it doesn’t matter, if it’s difficult, just don’t do it.

but i still want to seriously praise "bone sister"——

as a realistic female film, if i were to rate it, i would give it 8.0, and i would admire the loyalty that is common in the market.

the story is interspersed with narrative scenes, starting with shishi (gigi leung), a middle-aged woman living in taiwan and running a homestay with her husband (li liren). she is an alcoholic, gloomy, anxious, and treats her husband with respect. they are very polite to each other, at least she keeps a visible psychological distance from her husband.

until one day, she saw a missing person notice in the newspaper. it was the news of an old friend's death, and also a statement from a friend who accepted the commission to find her:

the woman named "lingling" died in a car accident, and the insurance beneficiary was shishi.

this incident made her feel helpless because lingling was the "sister" who cruelly abandoned her in her memory.

but on this day, shishi broke down and said to her husband:

"lingling is dead."

my husband was confused:

"who is lingling?"

obviously, my husband had long forgotten the gangster-looking girl in macau more than a decade ago.

“when i was a child, my mother would always take me to the macau fortress on my birthday every year. she said that was the place where she and the person she loved celebrated her birthday together.” when shishi came to macau to find lingling’s child lele (played by xia jianlong), lele was sitting on the floor flipping through his mother’s voice messages on his phone, all of which were nagging.

shishi learned from her friends that after she left, lingling and lele had a bad relationship and often quarreled. lele had the same temper as his mother.

at this time, shishi asked a few questions:

“were you sent back to the mainland when you were a child?”

"did your mother get married?"

after receiving a negative answer, shishi seemed to understand something...

macau before the return was no different from today. the rich were very rich, while the poor had to do everything they could to survive.

shishi (played by liao ziyu in her youth), who grew up in an orphanage, has no education and no knowledge, so she can only go to work in a "health club". she wants to be a massage technician, commonly known as a "bone sister" in the local area.

then she met lingling (played by yu xiangning), the only "sister" who was willing to give her advice and the only girl who could give her many conveniences. maybe it was the pity of being from the same lower class, or maybe it was the seemingly cynical but actually sensitive mind, anyway, lingling "protected" shishi, allowing shishi to pass the technician assessment smoothly. lingling was technician no. 18, and shishi deliberately chose no. 19 next to her.

lingling is an extrovert and has a stock market gangster spirit. this girl from the mainland who came to macau to make a living is tall and beautiful, and she spends her days dealing with different men. her pain is that no one loves her from the bottom of their hearts. her sisters are all careless, and men all want to sleep with her. so lingling put on a hard shell for herself until she met shishi.

that was the day when shishi was kicked out by the landlord because she had no money, and lingling took her home. shishi was furious when she saw everything in the room.

clothes, shoes and socks were thrown everywhere, leftovers were on the table, and an unpleasant smell filled the room.

but when lingling woke up, she found that under shishi's care, the whole room had a brand new look. she exclaimed, "my room looks like this..."

later, the two girls often lay on the sofa and watched tv, crying and laughing together. they also fought with other technicians for their sister. lingling was loyal, she liked to take on things, and she also had a kind of disdain for men. shishi was different. she would only take the cigarette from lingling's hand and replace it with a half-eaten apple when lingling was on the phone with a man. lingling took the apple and continued to eat it...

this is how it is between girls, if they have similar personalities they will behave intimately.

shishi gradually becomes more independent in managing lingling's life, or in a sense, she becomes lingling's "guardian". soon, she will face another difficult test.

lingling is pregnant, but she doesn't know who the father of the child is.

lingling panicked. she asked, "how do i give birth? how do i raise the baby after it's born?"

so she ran to a small clinic to have an abortion. shishi thought about it for a long time outside the door, then suddenly rushed in and dragged her away, leaving the doctor confused.

the two looked at each other, and shishi said, "give birth to the child and we will raise it together."

lingling looked at her and hugged her.

she was a miserable girl. every time her family sent her letters from the mainland, they just asked her for money. they never cared about her life or her recent situation. when shishi appeared, lingling didn't realize that she finally had someone she could embrace sincerely.

even if she is a "sister".

in the days that followed, the two girls waited for the baby to be born. shishi was more careful than lingling. she read all the knowledge about child care and prayed to the gods in the temple, hoping that the baby would be safe and sound. she would rather shorten her life for this.

after the child is born, it doesn’t matter who is the “father” and who is the “mother”. girls often become so tired from taking care of this little life that they are too busy to even have time to eat.

but as the world has its ups, it has its downs.

before the handover of macau, people were in panic, and the rich emigrated. the business of "bone sisters" became increasingly difficult, and they could only do odd jobs to make a living. at the same time, they had to face the criticism of the neighbors.

some people ask, “can homosexuals have children?”

lingling was so angry when she heard this that she almost got into a fight with the guy.

shishi persuaded her to stop.

but when the two were walking together, shishi unconsciously pulled her hand away from lingling. lingling felt it, and couldn't tell whether she was sad or angry. anyway, she kept her distance from shishi.

in fact, shishi has always been a girl who is slow to realize things. she only needs to observe a little bit to find out:

unknowingly, all the men who once surrounded lingling disappeared.

every night, the two of them slept in the same bed, with the newborn lele between them. their topic always revolved around this little life, and they kept talking about "our child"...

when middle-aged shishi thought of this, she suddenly ran desperately towards the cannon platform, where her memories also remained:

that night, it was shishi's birthday, and lingling took out a lighter to make a wish for her. the two agreed not to speak their wishes out loud, and then they crawled under a bench together and wrote down their wishes with a pen.

"i hope my love for shishi will last forever" and "i hope my love for lingling will last forever."

the girls smiled at each other.

that night, shishi, who was sitting under the bench, struggled to get into the chair. she was shishi from more than ten years later. under the bench, she saw that lingling's wish had been changed to:

"i hope shishi will always be happy."

shishi burst into tears...

that year, shishi met a taiwanese boy who liked her very much and even proposed to her within a day of knowing her.

lingling jokingly asked her if she would like to consider it.

having seen countless people, she could tell that the boy really liked shishi.

at that time, macau's economy was in recession, and they had no education or knowledge and could not find a job. but shishi said:

"you're crazy. you have hands and feet, but you're afraid of starving to death?"

in her opinion, she also has to take care of lele... and lingling.

but there was something strange on lingling's face.

"i just want to be with you."

middle-aged shishi seemed to have returned to that night when lingling, who had dressed up seductively again, told her that lele had been sent back to the mainland to be raised, and that she wanted to find a new "rich man" and that no one owed anyone anything.

she saw her younger self yelling at lingling, "i never want to see you again!"

she then turned around and left, threw herself into the arms of a taiwanese boy, and left macau forever.

more than ten years later, shishi finally saw lingling standing in the crowd to celebrate the return of macau that day, and tears also flowed down her face.

more than a decade later, shishi called out “lingling!”

the girl turned around and looked at her in surprise.

"i want to be with you."

shishi said.

unbeknownst to her, in her dreams, after lingling kissed the sleeping child, she would look at shishi for a long time, and then gently kiss her on the forehead...

lingling smiled, and shishi walked towards her, but found nothing.

in her sleep, shishi was crying, and a hand reached out to wipe away her tears...

shishi stayed in macau, and lele pursued her dream. she also sent her a postcard and asked her, "mom, are you happy?"

shishi knew that lingling did not continue to be a "sister" after she left. she took over a cake shop to sell cakes and worked hard to raise the child.

the afternoon sun shone on shishi, and she raised her head, as if guarding the "sister" she missed.

similarly, when she was worshipping lingling's tombstone, she seemed to see her younger self walking with lingling and other sisters. suddenly, she stopped and smiled at herself more than ten years later...

she had many regrets, such as she shouldn't have pulled her hand away from lingling, she shouldn't have assumed that lingling was unwilling to endure hardship and viewed the child as a burden, and she shouldn't have lacked the courage to face her own feelings.

in the hotel, she cried and said to her husband:

"i know you've been very good to me, but i haven't been happy at all these years. i finally understand why, because there's always someone in my heart. i want to stay in macau. i'm sorry."

yes, at this point i suddenly remembered that shishi started drinking after she came to taiwan, and when she was with lingling, she never drank.

at this moment, lele’s words came to my mind:

"when i was a kid, my mom always brought me to the fortress of macau on my birthday. i asked her why she always came here, and she said she had a lot of happy times here with someone she loved. i asked who it was? she just smiled..."

let me tell you a joke first:

alcoholism is bad.

for example, liao ziyu, after drinking for a while, she turned into gigi leung.

let me say something crude:

there is indeed a restricted scene in "bone sister" where the old oil stick lingling takes the newly debuted shishi to "relieve the heat" of two old men. lingling skillfully rubs oil on her hands and then reaches under the blanket, followed by the guests' comfortable moans...

shishi also clumsily helped the customer to relieve his anger, and then the camera turned, and she happily told lingling that she had earned another tip.

there is no uneasiness, no reflection or remorse.

but this is reality, and reality is cruel. she has to earn money, pay rent, and eat. lingling is the same. she has to "support a village" and dress up.

who can say that these girls living at the bottom of society are lowly?

everyone wants to be a socialite if they have the conditions.

i think.

"bone sisters" shows the common people who dare not and disdain to show. these girls criticize men together. some of them are blinded by money, while others still have a glimmer of fantasy in their hearts. however, they sympathize with each other, so even in middle age, they still quarrel when they should and help each other when they should.

the emotions between shishi and lingling are very subtle. the film does not deliberately highlight the love between same-sex couples. only occasionally when lingling looks at shishi, i can see a kind of admiration and dependence.

it was only after they parted that the naive feelings between them gradually became clear. for example, lingling always took lele to the taipei fortress to celebrate her birthday. she said that "that was the time she spent with the person she loved." shishi, on the other hand, spent her days in taiwan drinking to drown her sorrows.

at that time, this emotion, which was different from "loyalty", gradually touched me.

but the ending is really sad.

in shishi's fantasy, she shouted lingling's words "i want to be with you forever." it was not a whim, nor was it just "seeking excitement" out of vulgar prejudice. two girls from the lower class who were ignored, neglected and ridiculed comforted each other and hugged each other. who would laugh at them?

in addition, "bone sister" also gave me an unexpected gain:

in this movie released in hong kong in 2016, liao ziyu, who played the young shishi, and yu xiangning, who played lingling, were nominated for best supporting actress and best newcomer at the 36th hong kong film awards respectively.

in 2024, "lingling" yu xiangning won the best actress award at the 42nd hong kong film awards, the best actress award at the 30th hong kong film society critics awards, and the best actress award at the 60th taipei golden horse film festival with just one movie...

the movie is called "under the sun".

i know that at this stage in the mainland, the theme of "bone sister" is very bold, and it expresses a kind of "taboo", but i will feel sorry for and applaud this kind of "taboo" love.

because i have no prejudice, i believe that human emotions are subtle, and i also believe that they are real and difficult.

maybe one day, when we are able to face up to real social life and real people, we will also understand the heart-wrenching sentence in the movie, "i want to be with you forever."

that day, i believed we had made real progress.