All About Ah-Long

Ah Long works on building sites and lives in a small flat with his ten-year-old son. He used to race motorcycles; now he does what he can, and he has told the boy his mother is dead. One day she comes back: successful in advertising, about to marry, and she wants her son. The subject is not custody but a father never being able to tell his child the truth. Ah Long does not defend himself; he knows she can give the boy a better life, and the real question is whether he can accept it. The form is melodrama and presses its emotional buttons directly. But Johnnie To does it without cheapness: the scenes between father and son are built on daily detail, the exchanges are short and there is a lot of silence. The production sits entirely outside Chow Yun-Fat's image at the time. He was known in Hong Kong for gun films; here he plays a tired, quiet man in work clothes, and won best actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards for it. Sylvia Chang plays the mother and is also among the producers. Who it is for: viewers who like Hong Kong melodrama and Chow Yun-Fat's acting. Who it is not for: anyone uncomfortable with emotional manipulation; the film does it openly at the end.