Brief History of a Family

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Brief History of a Family

2024

1h 39m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Popcornmeter

92%

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37 Reviews

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After the one-child policy ends in China, a middle-class family's fate becomes intertwined with their only son's enigmatic new friend. Unspoken secrets, unmet expectations and untended emotions are put under the microscope.

Donald Clarke

Irish Times

The film does not quite pull off its enigmatic ending, but this remains a startlingly eerie debut that finds new angles to a familiar genre.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 25, 2025

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Leslie Felperin

Guardian

It’s so exquisitely balanced that it’s able to keep reconfiguring itself with the merest breeze into a whole new arrangement of shapes that’s just as pleasing and abstract as the last.

Rated: 5/5

Mar 20, 2025

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Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

AWFJ.org

It might not have the climactic whistles and bells of Parasite or Saltburn, but in this instance anything else would feel almost dishonest; this is a careful, considered film of enormous intelligence and emotional resonance

Jun 18, 2024

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Tom Dawson

Radio Times

This scrupulously controlled and impressively acted debut feature from Chinese film-maker Lin Jianjie peers beneath the façade of an affluent middle-class family, which has abided by the country's one-child policy.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 1, 2025

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Saskia Baron

The Arts Desk

...the focus on cutting-edge technology and luxurious lifestyles means that the lasting impression Brief History of a Family makes is of a film made for the international art house market...

Rated: 2/5

Mar 24, 2025

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Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

It's a hushed, slowly gripping story that inventively unpicks each person on-screen. And it cleverly leaves us to fill in the gaps, based on our own experiences.

Rated: 3.5/5

Mar 17, 2025

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Jianjie Lin

Director

Feng Zu

Tu Wei's Father

Guo Ke-Yu

Actor

Xilun Sun

Actor

Muran Lin

Actor

Jianjie Lin

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Synopsis

After the one-child policy ends in China, a middle-class family's fate becomes intertwined with their only son's enigmatic new friend. Unspoken secrets, unmet expectations and untended emotions are put under the microscope.

Director: Jianjie Lin
Producer: Ying Lou, Zheng Yue, Yiwen Wang
Screenwriter: Jianjie Lin
Production Co: First Light Pictures (Chengdu)
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Chinese
Runtime: 1h 39m