The female-led comedy “Her Story” looks set to become a smash hit at the Chinese box office, as women across the country hail the movie as China’s answer to the Hollywood blockbuster “Barbie.”

“Her Story” has generated massive buzz ahead of its nationwide release on Friday, with reviewers praising the movie’s unabashed celebration of female empowerment. Before its official release, the film had already grossed more than 46 million yuan ($6.3 million) since limited preview screenings started in mid-November.

Directed by the female filmmaker Shao Yihui and featuring a female-dominated cast, “Her Story” tells the story of an independent single mother trying to navigate the challenges of balancing family and career in modern Shanghai.

The movie explores similar territory to Shao’s 2021 hit comedy “B for Busy” — offering unconventional, sharp insights on China’s changing social dynamics — but “Her Story” is unique in telling the story from a female perspective.

The action centers around the protagonist Wang Tiemei, played by star actress Song Jia, and her attempts to manage her relationships with her daughter Momo and her love-struck female neighbor Ye.

Unusually for Chinese cinema, the male characters are very much subservient to the female protagonists. There is Wang’s ex-husband, who wanted to divorce after being unable to cope with the pressure of life as a live-at-home parent, but still holds a candle for Wang.

Then there is the love interest Ma, a musician unburdened by family ties who competes with the ex-husband for Wang’s attention — sparking a hilarious scene where the ex-husband tries to gain the upper hand by showing off his superior (though still quite basic) knowledge of feminist theory.

It’s a winning formula. Chinese moviegoers have raved about the film’s combination of laugh-out-loud gags and bold social commentary, helping “Her Story” rack up a sky-high average rating of 9.1 on the Chinese review platform Douban.

The praise from female viewers has been particularly effusive, with many feeling that the movie is breaking new ground in Chinese cinema by combining feminist themes with commercial appeal.

“‘Her Story’ is amazing,” Jiang Luyue, a moviegoer from Shanghai, told Sixth Tone. “It’s both utopian and realistic, idealized yet grounded. This is exactly how films should tackle the issues of the moment.”

Reviewers on Douban also praised the positive messages it conveys. “A single mother doesn’t have to be a superhero, and being in love is nothing to be ashamed of … This is exactly what Chinese cinema should showcase and what deserves to be seen,” one user wrote.

Many also compared “Her Story” to the Hollywood sensation “Barbie,” both in terms of its empowering portrayal of female characters and its widespread social impact.

“We finally have our own East Asian ‘Barbie!’” wrote one influencer with millions of followers on the microblogging platform Weibo. “The long-awaited feminist comedy is here.”

Yang Xiaolin, director of the Film Research Institute at Tongji University, said that the film’s popularity was also related to its sharp observation of everyday life, adding that it represented a new form of realist cinema.

“This film returns to the present, without exaggerating life, and focuses on ordinary people today, especially the young and middle-aged ‘new Shanghainese,’” he said.

However, Yang criticized the film’s deliberate marginalization of male characters. “These works inevitably depict how women are harmed or discriminated against in a male-dominated society, emphasizing the gender war and glorifying one side or demonizing the other,” he said.

Director Shao has denied that accusation, arguing that the film explores the ways in which patriarchal pressures harm both men and women.

“Feminism not only liberates women, but also liberates men,” Shao said in a promotional video for the film. “I believe that if they looked at the root causes, they would understand that they should be more united with women.”

(Header image: A poster for the movie “Her Story.” From Douban)