On Hainan Island, where the giant “Forever Marilyn” sculpture provocatively watches over beachgoers, everyone is on the make.

In this moody, modern film noir, an older man assaults two schoolgirls after luring them into the Warmness Hotel. The only witness to the incident is a teenager herself, Mia, who was working at the front desk that night. Being without papers, she is too vulnerable to speak up when questioned by the police, deciding to say nothing for fear of losing her job. But she soon becomes embroiled in shady negotiations over that night’s security camera footage, giving her a certain measure of power in a culture where women’s roles are so frequently defined and controlled by men.

Placing young women at center of a story that harkens back to the intrigue of hard-boiled detective fiction is only one of the innovations writer/director Vivian Hu brings to the screen in her compelling and tension-filled film.

In competition for the New Voices New Visions Award.