‘Girl On Edge’ review: Friendship turns to rivalry in Chinese figure skating drama

Dir/scr: Zhou Jinghao. China. 2025. 108mins

Chinese language determine skater Jiang Ning (Zhang Zifeng) faces a make-or-break competitors underneath the cruel and unforgiving eye of her mom and coach Wang Shuang (Ma Yili). A friendship with a lady who works on the rink, Zhong (Ding Xiangyuan), presents Jiang an escape from the rigours of her coaching. However Zhong’s pure present for skating catches the eye of the ruthless Wang, and the 2 women are pitted in opposition to one another on this trendy, however overwrought and over-complicated psychological thriller from first time director Zhou Jinghao.

Trendy, however overwrought and over-complicated 

The director, who labored in Silicon Valley earlier than pivoting to filmmaking with the brief movie Remoted Island (2021), clearly has a powerful intuition for visible storytelling, however the writing is much less assured. The movie will draw inevitable comparisons to each Black Swan and I, Tonya, however lacks the razor-cut of dread of the previous and the propulsive vitality of the latter. Whereas Lady On Edge begins promisingly, it quickly begins to repeat itself earlier than lastly explaining itself, shedding a lot of the strain alongside the way in which. The launchpad of a premiere in Cannes Administrators Fortnight, plus dedicated, dialed-up-to-eleven performances from all three leads, ought to however be certain that the image has a life at additional movie festivals with a deal with Asian cinema. 

Zhou’s eye-catching visible sense is clear from the outset, with a putting sequence through which a lady with dyed scarlet hair floats throughout the ice, solely to be felled by her rival. The crimson of her hair mingles with the pooling crimson of her blood on the ice, earlier than the story rewinds to a interval three weeks beforehand. 

Jiang, a tiny, child-sized creature with an enormous ambition, is coaching with a gaggle of equally pushed younger skaters. The coach’s consideration is preoccupied with one other skater who’s tipped to be a future nationwide champion. In the meantime Jiang botches her touchdown on every extravagant leap and spin, wiping out repeatedly. Pissed off, she breaks the cardinal rule, calling out to the coach to request a one on one session “Coach Wang…Mum!”. Wang fixes her with a scalding look of disdain and eviscerates her with phrases. “Is there actually any level?”.  

It’s a sophisticated relationship: the mom, a former skater herself, blames her being pregnant, and by extension her daughter, for the tip of her personal profession. Now she pushes Jiang to succeed, but additionally undermines her at each alternative. It’s no marvel that Jiang is at breaking level. 

Zhong, in the meantime, skates for the enjoyment of it and lures Jiang out of her coaching bubble to a curler disco held within the basement of a disused shopping center, a spot filled with popping neon colors and a stark distinction to the awful, wintry palette of Jiang’s life on the rink. But it surely’s a testy friendship which descends into paranoia and recrimination as soon as Jiang begins to suspect that Zhong is out to steal her profession, her glory – and her coach. For Jiang, everyone seems to be a possible rival however solely Zhong is an actual menace. 

The skating sequences are spectacular and inventively shot, with Jiang’s self-doubt captured by a jittery go-pro-style lens targeted shut in on her panicked face and fumbling toes. Elsewhere, distorting lenses evoke a way that actuality is slipping and Jiang’s fragile psyche is besieged. The ultimate twist will not be totally sudden. And sadly, it isn’t tightly plotted sufficient to keep away from unraveling underneath scrutiny.