Tao Jie – Ein einfaches Leben (2011)

Tao Jie – Ein einfaches Leben: Directed by Ann Hui. With Andy Lau, Deannie Ip, Hailu Qin, Fuli Wang. After suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people’s home.

“Ann Huiu0026#39;s u0026quot;A Simple Lifeu0026quot; is a poignant and melancholic film about the relationship between an old servant and her companion, a successful film producer to whose family the servant had been in service with. It is a beautiful, touching, and, more importantly, human film. It lives and breathes its own life with the help of the cast and crew involved.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe performances by Andy Lau as Roger the man and especially Deannie Yip as Ah Tao complement the movieu0026#39;s atmosphere as a whole. It is a warm, homely and crystal-clear one – subtly quiet, slightly louder when thereu0026#39;s more people around. This filmu0026#39;s screenplay relies more on the look on the actorsu0026#39; faces rather than relying on dialogue. This is a good thing. It allows the audience to focus on the performances in rapt attention. Relying on dialogue/subtitles more than often will distract from the movie. This is one movie which follows my rule for any great movie: subtlety is key. In many dramatic Chinese movies, the piano is a must for every music score, and it is overdone cheesily at many times. For this movie, however, composer Law Wing-Fai knows crucial music timing – the music is not overdone, yet not too minimal, and it knows when to appear at the right time. Correct.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHuiu0026#39;s focused yet calm, serene direction basically drives Susan Chanu0026#39;s screenplay right at home. Hui seems to have learned a thing or two about human drama from greats like Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa – it is put into terrific use here. But Yipu0026#39;s performance as the altruistic Ah Tao is simply wonderful; her face and body language speak more than herself, her vocal qualities ranging from sharp balking to solemn calm. She is the heart of the movie, alive, beating and like her, moving quietly along as her life goes by. Lau is also very good here, being more stoic than usual but hiding uneasiness within his eyes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is no great story without good characters, and u0026quot;A Simple Lifeu0026quot; has two great characters that drives the movie. Roger is a successful film producer, his whole family has migrated to America, and heu0026#39;s seemingly living the high life with his wealthy friends (featuring many non- intrusive cameos by Chinese celebrities including humorous ones by Sammo Hung, Tsui Hark and Anthony Wong) and yet he is more concerned with Ah Tao than everyone else. Ah Tao is an orphan since World War II and has since been serving Rogeru0026#39;s family for four generations without expecting any sort of compensation in return. Roger doesnu0026#39;t mind taking care of Ah Tao as everyone else progresses around him – the same way Ah Tao doesnu0026#39;t mind living her life on her own at an old folksu0026#39; home without Roger to help her around after a stroke attack – she feels guilty if he did that. The two characters are bonded, play with, even depend on each other as if theyu0026#39;re the only two people who understand each other. A sort of mother-son love, but more powerful. Compare with later scenes with Roger and his real mother and youu0026#39;ll see the difference. Iu0026#39;m not implying Rogeru0026#39;s real mother is a morally bad character, far from it. The relationship between them is more real and human than I had expected.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome will call this tedious and pretentious; others will call it pointless. Iu0026#39;m not sure, but Iu0026#39;d love to see movies like this where the characters unwrap the story around them as life progresses with its ups and downs. Sure, there are a few bits and pieces that did not really relate to the main characteru0026#39;s story – but they make up the story and the characters as a whole – shaping this narrative up. It is a thing of beauty. So is life. So is this film – one of the yearu0026#39;s best.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall rating: 88%”