Daughter's Daughter
Daughter's Daughter (女兒的女兒) is a 2024 Taiwanese drama film directed and written by Huang Xi, starring Sylvia Chang as a divorced mother who, after her younger daughter dies in an accident, becomes the legal guardian of her daughter's frozen IVF embryo and must also face the elder daughter she gave up for adoption as a teenager.1 The film premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and won Best Original Screenplay at the 61st Golden Horse Awards.2 • 3
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 女兒的女兒 (Nu er de nu er)1 |
| Director and screenwriter | Huang Xi1 |
| Runtime and language | 126 minutes; Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, and Cantonese1 |
| World premiere | September 5, 2024, Toronto International Film Festival, Platform Competition2 |
| Taiwan release | November 22, 20242 |
| Principal cast | Sylvia Chang, Karena Lam, Eugenie Liu, Winston Chao, Alannah Ong, Tracy Chou1 |
| Major award | Best Original Screenplay, 61st Golden Horse Awards (2024)3 |
| Production | Sun Lok Productions; executive producers Hou Hsiao-hsien and Sylvia Chang1 |
Spoilers
Plot
Jin Aixia (金艾霞), a divorced Taiwanese woman in her sixties, lives a settled routine: she visits her elderly mother, worries about her headstrong younger daughter Zuer, and occasionally checks in on her elder daughter Emma in New York.4 Her younger daughter Zuer (Eugenie Liu) is in New York undergoing IVF treatment with her lesbian partner Jiayi (Tracy Chou).5 When Zuer and Jiayi die in a car accident, Jin flies to New York and learns that a viable embryo survives the couple, with Jin as its legal guardian.5
The embryo's fate, whether to donate, keep frozen, carry it to birth, or destroy it, is left in Jin's hands.3 The tragedy also forces her back into contact with Emma (Karena Lam), the daughter she gave up for adoption after a teenage pregnancy and who accompanies her in arranging Zuer's affairs in the United States.1 • 5 The New Taipei City Film Assist and Development Center describes the film as an exploration of mother-daughter relations and artificial reproduction from a female perspective, touching on childbirth, single parenthood, separation and reunion, and the right to life.6
Cast and crew
Sylvia Chang, whose career spans five decades, plays Jin and also serves as an executive producer alongside Hou Hsiao-hsien.7 • 1 Karena Lam plays Emma, and Eugenie Liu plays Zuer; Winston Chao and Alannah Ong round out the principal cast.1 The key crew includes cinematographer Hung-I Yao, editor Ching-Sung Liao, production designer Wern-ying Hwarng, and composers Kay Huang, Point Hsu, Angu Liang, and Mukio Chang.1
Director
Huang Xi (黃熙) is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts based in Taipei who has worked closely with Hou Hsiao-hsien since Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996).1 His debut feature, Missing Johnny (2017), was selected at Busan, Tokyo FILMeX, and the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and won awards at the Taipei Film Awards and Golden Horse Awards; his 2022 HBO Asia series Twisted Strings, which featured Sylvia Chang, won four Golden Bell Awards including the miniseries award.1 • 3 Daughter's Daughter is his second feature.5
Release and reception
The film premiered on September 5, 2024 at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Platform Competition, where it received a Special Mention.2 • 4 It screened in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 29, 2024, closed the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival on November 10, 2024, showed at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival on November 18, and opened commercially in Taiwan on November 22, 2024.2 It later became available on Netflix.8
In November 2024, at the 61st Golden Horse Awards, Daughter's Daughter took home Best Original Screenplay and also earned nominations: Sylvia Chang for Best Leading Actress, Eugenie Liu for Best Supporting Actress, along with Best Original Film Song and Best Makeup & Costume Design.3 • 9 Sylvia Chang received an Asian Film Awards nomination for Best Actress in 2025.10
Critics generally centered their reviews on Chang's performance. Wendy Ide of Screen Daily called the film "elegant and affecting" and praised Chang's combination of steeliness and vulnerability.11 The South China Morning Post gave it 3.5 of 5 stars, describing it as an absorbing family drama about strained parent-child relationships in a society losing sight of traditional filial duties.5 Reviews also noted the film's deliberate pacing; IMDb records a worldwide gross of $43,136 and a user rating of 6.6 out of 10.12
References
- Daughter's Daughter, Rediance Films
- Daughter's Daughter (2024) Release info, IMDb
- 女兒的女兒 Daughter's Daughter, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival
- 女兒的女兒 Daughter's Daughter, WOW!SCREEN
- Daughter's Daughter movie review: Sylvia Chang anchors tale of pan-generational trauma, South China Morning Post
- Daughter's Daughter (女兒的女兒), New Taipei City Film Assist and Development Center
- Daughter's Daughter Film Review: Parent-Child Drama, Loud And Clear Reviews
- Watch Daughter's Daughter, Netflix
- DAUGHTER'S DAUGHTER《女兒的女兒》, Taiwan Film Festival in Australia
- Daughter's Daughter, Filmaffinity
- Daughter's Daughter: Tokyo Review, Screen Daily
- Daughter's Daughter (2024), IMDb
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2023 and 2024 › Titles A to G
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
Your notes
© 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Developers: read Edgepedia by API or MCP. Embed a reference card.