During the Golden Horse celebrations, Roan received a gentle but prescient warning from Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee. I also hope it can open up more conversations and opportunities.” Drawn from Roan’s childhood and family history, “American Girl” earned widespread acclaim but also prompted some observers to question whether the filmmaker could move beyond autobiography. This fictional story went from nothing to a complete screenplay within a year, but it also captured the emotional shifts that my friends and I were experiencing at different stages of our lives.” “Happily Ever After” closely examines the subtle emotional dynamics between two sisters.
The story initially placed greater emphasis on the younger sister, played by Shuhua, before evolving into a dual-protagonist narrative. Rather than addressing Shuhua by her real name or her character’s name, everyone on set simply called her “little sister.” Before filming began, Shuhua was also invited to name the cat that appears as the family pet. Shuhua’s own experience as the middle child in a family of three daughters gave her a deeper emotional connection to the role, according to Roan.
She also points to Ozu Yasujirō’s cycle of films about fathers marrying off their daughters, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s family dramas and Greta Gerwig’s explorations of women’s inner lives. During the early development of “Happily Ever After,” Roan immersed herself in reading, including Taiwanese author Kevin Chen’s novel “Ghost Town.” Stories exploring family, identity and self-worth fed into her new fictional direction while allowing her to retain the emotional honesty of her earlier work. As the film meets its first international audience in Toronto, Roan is eager to exchange ideas with filmmakers from around the world.
Above all, she hopes “Happily Ever After” will spark a conversation around the question embedded in its title: What does it mean to be happy on your own terms?
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