Eve and the Fire Horse 2005

Eve Eng Kut Phoebe Kut is a precocious nine-year-old born in the Year of the Fire Horse, a superstition in some Chinese families that marks her as among the most spirited and troublesome children. Dinners around Eve’s family table unfold as a lively, often chaotic blend of old-world propriety and modern audacity, where meals end with laughter as easily as they end with debates about tradition. As summer approaches, Eve senses that the carefree days of childhood may be slipping away, replaced by something sharper and more complicated.

When her mother chops down their apple tree — a superstitious omen — a streak of bad luck seeps into the family in unexpected, tragic ways. Eve is forced to grow up faster than she would like, learning to savor small joys even as sorrow presses in. She clings to little comforts, like a goldfish she believes carries the spirit of her beloved grandmother Ping Sung Wong.

Meanwhile, Eve’s older sister Karena Eng Hollie Lo begins to explore Christianity with a fresh intensity. The house becomes a canvas for this spiritual search: crucifixes begin to share space with the Buddha, and a Sunday school class becomes a strange new stage where Eve’s wild imagination often feels out of place. The tension between Karena’s quest for a premature sainthood and Eve’s own sense of right and wrong creates a delicate tug-of-war inside the family, tested by the arrival of new beliefs and old loyalties.

Caught in the crosswinds of faith, family, and the pull of childhood, Eve navigates the world with a mix of fanciful humor and wide-eyed wonder. Her imaginative outlook turns ordinary moments into small adventures, and her empathy for others—especially those who seem different or in need—reveals the heart at the story’s center. In the end, the film paints a gentle, hopeful portrait: sometimes the most troublesome children are the ones who leave the deepest marks on the people around them, teaching everyone how to listen, understand, and forgive.