Family Matters

Audience Choice Award, 2025 Taipei Film Festival
Best Performer, 2025 Osaka Asian Film Festival
Best Feature Film, 2025 New York Asian Film Festival

While applying for a tuition waiver, Spring (Queena Huang) discovers a truth that shatters her world: she’s adopted. When she confronts her mother, a bitter and resentful Autumn (Alexia Kao) responds icily by asking, after all she has done to raise her, if carrying her for ten months really makes a difference. So begins the slow unraveling of the secrets and sacrifices of the Hsiao family—daughter Spring, son Summer, mother Autumn, and father Winter—in Taiwanese director Pan Ke-yin’s FAMILY MATTERS.

Structured in four non-chronological episodes, the film expertly takes the viewer through each member’s unique perspective, revealing how their stories—like the seasons—are both part of a whole and utterly distinct. At the center of it, the father is a tragic figure whose gambling addiction and cowardice threaten to shatter the entire family. An extension of his Golden Horse-nominated short film, My Sister, director Pan Ke-yin has returned to his cast and successfully evoked an engaging second performance from them in this emotionally rich contemporary family drama.

– Yang Jiang

All films in the Taiwan Film Showcase (excluding screenings at Ultrastar Cinemas) are FREE for UCSD students, faculty, and staff with a valid ID.