WUSS | Omeleto Drama

A tomboy wants to hang out with boys.


WUSS is used with permission from Rubing Zhang. Learn more at https://rubingzhang.com.


Nine-year-old Xiaoyu is a tomboy who often roams her neighborhood alone. She wants to hang out with a group of boys, but they push her away. But she manages to strike up a tentative friendship with a girl who helps out at the store that her parents run.

But one day, the "boys squad" offers Xiaoyu the chance to join their group. But it will come at the expense of her nascent friendship with the girl at the store. Faced with the desire to belong with the knowledge of right and wrong, Xiaoyu has a hard decision to make.

Directed and written by Rubing Zhang, this incisive, beautifully observed short drama is a poignant coming-of-age story of a young child seeking belonging and connection. Its situation -- of someone trying to break into a social group of friends -- is relatable and simple, rendered in elegantly straightforward craftsmanship. But its portrayal of Xiaoyu's emotions is compellingly complex, tracking the efforts of Xiaoyu to both fit in and do the right thing.

The tenor of the film's storytelling is on the unhurried side, with its patient, naturalistic visual sense and delicate camerawork attuned to how small details can reveal so much about the story's world and characters. But Xiaoyu doesn't quite fit into this world, too tomboyish to fit with the girls and yet still too different to hang out with the other boys. Young actor Zixuan Xu as Xiaoyu has an inherent spunkiness and independence but is deftly able to telegraph the character's wistfulness and desire to connect and belong.

Xiaoyu seems to strike up a friendship with a girl who helps out at a store in the neighborhood, both showing curiosity and kindness to one another. Their scenes together have an endearing tentativeness that is relatable and winning, which makes it especially distressing when the girl is taunted, teased and bullied by the neighborhood boys that Xiaoyu wants to be a part of. Xiaoyu is offered a chance to hang out with the boys, but only at the expense of her budding friendship with another girl -- and thus faces a test of loyalty and conscience.

The gift of WUSS is how it never minimizes its young protagonist's emotions, acknowledging that a child's emotional world is just as complex, sharp and poignant as any adult's. Xiaoyu faces nothing less than a test of a growing moral compass, and while the stakes seem small, they are quite profound. Moments like these shape characters indelibly, a recognition that imbues the film with compelling wisdom and power beyond Xiaoyu's years.

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