This taboo-busting Taiwanese drama from 1980 was directed by Mi-Mi Lee, a female pioneer in an industry then dominated by men. Hsiao-Peng is sent to a maternity home for young, single pregnant women – most of whom have been sent there by their embarrassed parents, who want their daughters to have the baby in secret and then adopted. Hsiao-Peng slowly overcomes her depressive thoughts and builds strong bonds with the other women; and after moving out, they continue to support one another.

In advocating for atypical family models, Unmarried Mothers was ahead of its time, while its emphasis on female agency still feels genuinely empowering 45 years later: the sequence when the friends arrange their household furniture, set to an orchestration of ABBA’s Dancing Queen, is unlike anything else you’ll see in Taiwanese cinema.

 

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