European Premiere | In Competition | White Mulberry Award Candidate
Taiwan, 2025, 99’, Mandarin, Taiwanese
Directed by: Pan Ke-yin
Screenplay: Pan Ke-yin
Cinematography (color): Eric Chao
Editing: Huey Lee, Pan Ke-yin
Production Designer: Chu Yu-chi
Music: Li Ying-hung
Producers: Cheng Yu-chieh, Henry Tsai, Hsieh Chun-yao
Cast: Lan Wei-hua (Winter), Alexia Kao (Autumn), Tseng Jing-hua (Summer), Queena Huang (Spring), Yao Chun-yao (Yuan), Yen Yi-wen (Li), Yu Chia-hsuan (Hsuan)
In Chinese, we use the saying “every family has a scripture that is difficult to read” to express that it’s not easy to maintain a family, and that every family has its share of problems to get over. That saying certainly holds true for the Hsiao family in Family Matters, the feature directorial debut of Pan Ke-yin. An extension of his Golden Horse-nominated short film My Sister (2021), Pan’s episodic and delicately crafted pseudo-autobiographical drama ponders what makes a family and holds it together.
Organised in emotional order rather than chronological, each of the film’s four episodes provides a piece of the puzzle that reveals the family’s complex history. It starts with the perspective of eldest daughter Spring (Queena Huang) when she is just about to enter an elite university. While applying for a tuition waiver, she learns from government paperwork that she was actually adopted at birth. When she confronts her mother Autumn (Alexia Kao) about it, Autumn merely rebukes her by asking whether not carrying her for ten months really makes their relationship different.
This is only the first surprise involving paternity in Family Matters. After the first bombshell, the narrative jumps back in time by a decade to show Autumn’s struggles with conceiving her second child with her husband Winter (Lan Wei-hua), a sad sack of a man who channels his self-pity at the local gambling table (with an arguably good reason that will be revealed later). In this second section, it’s apparent that like many families, the Hsiaos are hiding more than a few skeletons in their closet. When the narrative jumps decades ahead to show said second child Summer (Tseng Jing-hua) as a young adult in the third section, the potentially dire consequences of these secrets are finally revealed.
The plot of Family Matters may sound almost melodramatic, but Pan’s storytelling is much more organic and nuanced than that. As dramatically compelling as the family’s secrets are, Pan also takes the time to show that the moments that keep the family together, such as Spring defending a young Summer from bullies and the family Lunar New Year worship ritual that bookends the film, are just as important as the things that threaten to tear them apart.
Rather than spelling them out in big dramatic beats, moments of deep affection are implied with acts as simple as friendly taunting between siblings, the mother sharing pieces of pig trotters from the father’s plate at dinner, or Spring accompanying Autumn to the local market. As the intentionally ambiguous nature of the title suggests, the film is more than about exposing one family’s hard-to-read scriptures; it argues why it matters for the Hsiaos to stick together in spite of their difficulties, and why their bond – whether it’s by blood or otherwise – needs those secrets to keep it together. Like the family, Pan’s film cleverly reveals its intriguing complexities beneath its unassuming surface.
GUEST:
PAN Ke-yin, director
Pan Ke-yin
Pan Ke-yin began his creative career as an editor and director of commercials, music videos and trailers. In 2020, he was nominated for Best Film Editing at the Golden Bell Awards for television film
Hit and Run. In 2021, his short film
My Sister was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the Golden Horse Awards, and his 2022 short film
Daddy-To-Be won the Housen Short Film Award Special Mention at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.
Family Matters (2025) is his feature directorial debut.
FILMOGRAPHY
2025 – Family Matters