A Simple Life

Ah Tao has worked for the same family for sixty years, serving four generations. The rest of them have moved abroad and only Roger is left in the house; a film producer, unmarried, eating what she cooks every day. One day she has a stroke. She says she will stop working and go into a care home. Roger does not argue; he settles her there and starts visiting. Ann Hui directs. Deanie Ip plays Ah Tao and Andy Lau plays Roger. The story is real. Roger Lee, one of the producers, told his own life; Ah Tao is based on a real woman who worked for his family. The subject is what to call the relationship. Ah Tao is neither a relative nor an employee, and after sixty years neither of them knows what it is; the film never resolves the uncertainty. The care home sections have documentary care. Shared rooms, the arithmetic of fees, the other residents and the conditions of care are shown unadorned; the state of elderly care in Hong Kong is inside the narrative. Deanie Ip won best actress at the 2011 Venice film festival for the part and the film took a large number of awards in Asia. The narrative never raises the emotional pitch; even death passes quietly and music is almost never used. Who it is for: viewers who like Ann Hui and quiet films about old age. Who it is not for: little happens, the pace is slow, and the narrative seeks no climax.