Now I Met Her is a technically accomplished film. However, where the film falls short is that, despite excellent execution, the plot proves derivative and underwritten by a strong male gaze
Specifically, the movie follows teenager Zhang Shiyi, who discovers his deceased mother’s diary on his 18th birthday. Zhang, who was raised by his father, is drawn into the tales of his mother’s adventurous past as depicted in the diary.
Much of Now I Met Her, then, consists of flashbacks, detailing Zhang’s mother—Li Dongyu—through the course of three turbulent romances. Li first falls for an amateur dancer as a teenager and then helps him win a dance competition. Then, she falls for a waiter in a restaurant who later becomes mixed up in a smuggling operation and gets arrested. Lastly, the diary then depicts the romance that leads to Zhang’s birth.
All this is well and good, with Ma Sichun’s acting as Li Dongyu carrying the film. Li is depicted as fun, lively, and quirky—which makes viewers all the more sad that she apparently died in childbirth. The movie would be her story, except that the frame narrative is through a flashback, and the main character is technically Zhang—who actually appears for very little of the movie.
Yet, one has the nagging sense that there is actually quite little to Li besides that she is quirky and fun, not to mention dead. The point of the movie, then, is simply to craft her as a male fantasy for the male protagonist to feel sad about in the present, that he could have never gotten to know his mother.
In a technical sense, Now I Met Her is shot well, with vivid colors, dynamic scene transitions, and pitch-perfect acting. But the fact that its plot revolves around a male fantasy about a female character undermines the movie. It does not help that Li is mostly a cookie-cutter protagonist, who apparently has no flaws, and little characterization besides being vivacious.
Now I Met Her may have strong production values, but it is ultimately forgettable fare, simply because one will remember little of the characters after watching. This proves all the more of a shame, when a movie that focused precisely on Li Dongyu and her subjectivity through adverse times, minus the frame narrative, could have made for a compelling watch. That, of course, would have required the movie to move beyond its male-centered perspective—which it never does.
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Now I Met Her (Chinese: 我的妈耶)—China. Dialog in Mandarin Chinese. Directed by Xiao Luxi. Running time 2hr 1min. First released April 3, 2026. Starring Ma Sichun, Huang Minghao, Bai Ke, Liang Jingkang, Ji Jiahe.
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