Review of Dragon Girls (2012) by Matt M — 21 Nov 2013

A respectful and tender look at the lives of the young female students at the Shaolin Kung Fu school which is regarded as the birthplace of kung fu. Unsurprisingly, considering Westmeier's acclaimed background as a cinematographer, the film is of a rare beauty.

It comes across as an intimate and reverential look at a different culture, but also at the school itself and its inhabitants, whether it is when filming the 35,000 students lined up as disciplined soldiers or the face of a girl forcefully restraining the tears overcome with the stress induced by the hard training and the sadness of being so far from home - not to mention that the camera moves as smoothly as brushstrokes on a canvas in the scenes where the girls reveal their amazing martial arts skills through exhibitions that could easily be defined as nothing short of poetic.

It is also amazing to see how close Westmeier was able to get to the girls, whose childish warmth cannot be concealed by the tough training and hard lives they must endure. Yet, the enjoyment and gratification of Dragon Girls also comes down to his great choice of respecting the foreign Shaolin tradition by not giving into facile judgemental viewpoints and conclusions dictated by Western world ethics.