Jasmine Women (2004)

Jasmine Women is an effort “dedicated to all mothers”, as its opening credits assert. Based on the book Fu Nü Sheng Huo (Life of Women) by Su Tong, it is about three generations of women in a family—Mo in the 1930s, Li in the 1950s and Hua in the 1980s—who seemingly inherit a genetic ill-fate with men. Their story is told in three chapters: ‘Grandmother’, ‘Mother’, ‘Daughter’. Collectively, their names make up the word ‘mo li hua’ or ‘jasmine’.