Ah Girl, the debut feature from Singaporean filmmaker Ang Geck Geck Priscilla, draws from her own childhood memories and feelings. It tells a simple childhood story with a gentle sense of sadness.

Set in the 1990s, Ah Girl follows seven-year-old Ah Girl and her younger sister Ah Tian as they adjust to life after their carefree parents separate. At school, Ah Girl secretly trades bubble gum, a small way of doing things on her own terms that also reflects her refusal to follow rules, including her resistance to cutting her long hair. It’s her way of holding on to some control in a changing world and trying to bring her family back together.

But her actions are often misunderstood by the adults around her, who see them as mischief rather than care. The film gently points to how easily children’s behaviour is misread, and how much more complex their feelings and understanding can be than adults assume.

The film has a strong Singaporean feel, starting with its title. Ah Girl is a common nickname used for young girls in families, while the Chinese title 泡泡糖女孩 (Bubblegum Girl) nods to a once-banned habit in Singapore. Both ideas are carried through into the story, helping create Ah Girl as a character who is strong-willed and sometimes mischievous.

Ah Girl is also very kind and sensible, in a way that she would do anything within her power to want the best for everyone she cares about, and if she can, she would solve their problems with her own hands. While Ah Girl is emotionally alert and outspoken, Ah Tian contrasts her with bluntness and compliance with reality. At times, it brings to mind The Florida Project by Sean Baker, where children are also caught in difficult situations with little control over where life takes them. But instead of drifting towards uncertainty, Ah Girl imagines a future where things can still get better for the people she loves.

Beneath the story of family conflict and the adult world seen through a child’s perspective, what stays with you is the loneliness of not being understood, and of not being allowed to speak because adults assume children do not know enough. Ah Girl is often kept out of what is happening at home, and her voice is not taken seriously. Her wishes – to stay with both parents, to keep her long hair, and to remain close to Ah Tian – are repeatedly dismissed. Each of these moments pushes her further into a space that is smaller and harder to live in.

The director recreates a 1990s childhood, before instant messages and constant connection, when loneliness and the need for company felt much more real. It feels familiar, yet distant now that we are adults. The film shows childhood as a time of limited choices and helplessness. It takes us back to when we first learned what it means to have little control, and to a small, stubborn girl trying her best to hold her world together. Even when things fall apart, she keeps trying again, because when a bubble bursts, it simply means another chance to start over.

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Written by Jane Wei

Featured image courtesy of Ang Geck Geck Priscilla

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