Thirty-year-old Lok is a filmmaker struggling to maintain her career in Hong Kong, while her girlfriend longs for stability. Under pressure and creative exhaustion, Lok is once again torn between the exceptional life she dreams of and the reality she is stuck in. Disenchanted, she returns to earlier versions of herself—each with its own partner, tensions, and unfulfilled desires.
Told in reverse chronological order, the film follows Lok from her restless twenties as a recent graduate in Taiwan, back to her open, searching teenage years in Macau, where she is confronted with study choices and the first outlines of her identity. In this fragmented flashback, Lok tries to understand who she has become.
With an ensemble cast of some of Hong Kong's most sought-after actors, Girlfriends is a tender ode to youth and self-discovery—an honest, sometimes painful reflection on the lives we live to become who we are.
Tracy Choi grew up in Macau and studied film in Taiwan. Her documentary I'm Here (2012) won the Jury Prize at the Macau International Film Festival. She made her feature film debut with Sisterhood (2016).