Devious Goodie #158

The Way We Are 天水圍的日與夜

Director: Ann Hui On-Wah
Cast:
Bau Hei-Jing, Chan Lai-Wun, Juno Leung Chun-Lung, Idy Chan Yuk-Lin, Clifton Ko Chi-Sum
Release Date: July 17th, 2008
Language: Cantonese
Subtitles: English
Quality: DVDRip
Synopsis:

Dubbed the "City of Sadness", Hong Kong's Tin Shui Wai became the subject of much local scrutiny in 2007 and 2008 for its myriad socioeconomic problems and tragic fallouts. The city's high rates of suicide, unemployment, domestic violence, and youth crime raised a red flag that exploded in the media after a series of headline-splashing suicides. Tin Shui Wai quickly became the backdrop for two films - Lawrence Lau's gritty youth film Besieged City and Ann Hui's low-key docudrama The Way We Are - that provide two very different visions of life in the City of Sadness. While Lau's tale of wayward teens highlighted the city's much-publicized problems, Ann Hui (The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, Boat People) steadfastly avoids sensationalism or drama in her organic study of the way people are in Tin Shui Wai.

Possibly the most realistic portrayal of everyday life in Hong Kong ever put to the silver screen, The Way We Are steps seamlessly into the world of Hong Kong's lower working class amid the city's ubiquitous housing estates. The film unobtrusively follows the lives of kindhearted working mother Mrs. Cheung (veteran actress Pau Hei Ching), her blank but agreeable teenage son Ka On (newcomer Juno Leung), and their lonely elderly neighbor who works at the same supermarket as Mrs. Cheung. Through the seemingly uneventful cycle of work, grocery shopping, reluctant fellowship meetings, humorously mundane conversations, and the same old dinner, Ann Hui captures a remarkably realistic slice of Hong Kong life that is eye-opening and genuinely enjoyable.


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