Loo Shu-hsin is born into privilege in 1924 her father is a banker in the largely British-run International Settlement of Shanghai but her life is marked by her mother's constant belittlement. Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk, she's told, after speaking out of turn. With a tongue like yours, no one will ever marry you. Her only solace in the household is a nursemaid, Nai-ma, who vanishes
As a former English literature major, I really thought I was above reality TV. I don't watch a lot of content, and when I do, I'm more of a "Game of Thrones" person than a "Real Housewives" person. I love analyzing themes, motives, and emotional arcs, and I assumed the Bravo franchise had nothing to offer but mindless drama. For years, I had avoided the shows and would usually leave the room when my teenage daughter turned them on.
Back to selectionMeriem Bennani and Orian Barki made Filmmaker's 25 New Faces list in 2020 off their improbably delightful pandemic-set 2 Lizards, a viral web series in which the filmmakers, week by week, transposed the time's various masking and social distancing rituals into an animal-centric parallel NYC. In our profile, Bennani teased a new work, saying, "There's something we spontaneously found together in terms of an animation technique and a certain tone that could be developed into another project."
When I got pregnant, my mother wasn't excited, and she remained distant. She eventually came around to love my child, healing our mother-daughter relationship.
You can be proactive about this and you can make a plan for de-escalation if your prophylactic measures fail. Mother and daughter being close is a wonderful thing. Being 'prone to fighting' is not.