North American Premiere

Every butterfly has gone through the dark and difficult process of evolution before it can fly freely. It has to experience the process on its own because no one can help, and any attempt to rush through it is fatal.

Flavia is a 30-year-old teacher, mother and wife who always does what is expected of her. But when she meets Yip, a charming woman, casually munching away in a supermarket, a part of Flavia?s past, long buried, is rekindled.

Flavia befriends Yip and, ultimately, gives her smoldering attraction. A love affair develops, and Flavia is torn between the choice of being true to her desires or yield to society?s demands of her. Afraid of doing something foolish and losing her child, Flavia seeks out her past to find the answers she needs.

Josie Ho is both tender and determined as Flavia, a woman recollecting the torment of her youth and undergoing the upheavals of personal change and growth. Tian Yuan is both charming and beguiling as the young Yip, who is unfazed by all the struggles Flavia must endure in coming out.

Director Yan Yan Mak creates an absorbing tale of strong female sensibilities by revealing a woman?s evolution from caterpillar to butterfly, along with all of the strength, determination and pain that comes with breaking out of a life led for others and not oneself.

Sandy Wolf

GLOBAL LANDSCAPES