On Monday, February 11, 2020, PBS Independent Lens aired Leftover Women, directed by Hilla edalia and Shosh Sham (uncredited, according to Imdb). PBS reaired on Dec. 5, 2022.
In China, young women are under intense pressure to accept “the best they can do” and find husbands, or wind up as 'leftovers'. They are a byproduct of the past 'one child per family' policy, where they learned less about sharing unchosen family intimacy and expect more privacy. The film follows three single women.
In the opening scene, a woman gets a frank talking-to by a counselor. She thinks she still looks young, but she really doesn't.
Later, one of the women talks about the fact that having or not having children should be her choice, but she keeps getting supervisory visits by Chinese authorities. She is also faced with the issue of filial piety. She says she feels threatened with exile.
In China, people often have to have permission to move to where they want to live. And there is the ever increasing social credit system.
The movie seems timely but post haste in being offered by PBS in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.
There is no connection the HBO sci-fi series The Leftovers but maybe there should be. After a rapture, there are leftovers and a 'guilty remnant'.
Stream some stuff analyzes the HBO series 'The Leftovers'.
(Posted: Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 12 noon EST)