Carlos Aguilar Elevated by its consistent visual inventiveness, Chinese writer-director Jianjie Lin’s suspenseful drama “Brief History of a Family” could appear, at first glance, as a clear-cut case of a cunning infiltrator wreaking havoc in an unsuspecting household.
Yet the closer we observe, the more it reveals itself as a tale of wish fulfillment for everyone involved.No doubt comparisons to “Saltburn,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” or “The Talented Mr.
Ripley” will abound, but what Lin conceived is far more subcutaneous, with a sobering tone and disinterested in building up to a grand plot twist — though the resolution is unexpected.
Hit with a basketball while doing pull-ups, 15-year-old Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun) injures his leg. As an apologetic gesture, the guilty culprit, Tu Wei, a fellow classmate from an affluent family, invites Shou to play video games and to stay over for dinner.
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