A Simple Life (桃姐)

It's a long time since I last saw any film by Ann Hui (許鞍華). She never ceases to surprise me. Many many years ago, she did an MA thesis on a now little known French "nouveau roman" writer and director in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Alain Robbe-Grillet, with whose novels, films and literary theory I too was at one time fascinated. I can still see a trace of Robbe-Grillet's influence in the way she prioritizes details of images in her film 《桃姐》(A Simple Life) (2011) which is anything but simple. Starring two ace actor and actress Andy Lau (劉德華) and Deanie Yip (葉德嫻), it tells of the very special kind of subtle emotions that can subsist between a family maid and her young master through years of living together in close physical proximity to each other and through knowing of the most intimate personal idiosyncrasies of each other.

With this film, Anne Hui won the Golden Horse Award for best director, Andy Lau for best actor and Deanie Yip  won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Horse Award, Estonia Film Festival and the Asia Film Festival. I cannot think of a more deserving actress. I like the way she conveys with her eyes, her facial expression, her body gestures, the tone of her voice the care and concern she has for her young master, who remains always a somewhat remote yet a most intimate part of her life and the focus of her attention and emotions so that she would do whatever he asks of her. She spoils him as if he were her very own son. 桃姐 (literary "Sister Plum") possesses a naturally self-effacing understanding and tolerating attitude towards others' faults and foibles and there is nothing she would not do within her powers to make life comfortable for her young master. She has become part and parcel of the family in which she serves. By comparison, Andy Lau still seems a bit stiff and strained in his acting. He doesn't seem to be able to forget that he is Andy Lau, notwithstanding his best efforts.  

When the film begins, we see Roger Leung, her young master whose whole family had long emigrated to Canada, returning home from Beijing enjoying his favourite steamed crab and steamed fish after she went to the market to handpick everything for the preparation of the meal. The story is supposed to be based upon a real life about Sister Plum, who has been a family maid for the same family for some 60 years, since age 13 and has seen 5 generations of the same family, that of the producer 李恩霖. The story takes on real interest when 桃姐 got a stroke and could not work any more. Roger arranged for her to be taken care of in a home for the aged run by his buddy and gave her the best room and the best service that money could buy and would take time off to see him whenever he returns to Hong Kong e.g to go to a nearby local tea-house, to meet her parents and to take her to the premier of his film, to buy her her favourite barbecued goose rice noodles. We see how in the home for the aged, other old people are treated by members of their family and for a bit of added humor, how an old man 堅叔 (Uncle Kin) (秦沛) would time and again "borrow" money to indulge in his sexual urges despite his age, foolishly thinking or hoping that others didn't know. and also another episode in which two co-directors of a film in which Roger is involved staged a "fight" to squeeze a little more money for financing the film from its PRC  financier. We see how the old people would dribble, how they while away the time staring into the air with blank eyes, how they would gossip about newcomers,  how excited and delighted they would be to share in a little snacks brought by others for another one of their inmates, how they suffer from lack of care and attention by their own children, how an old woman who had given her life's savings to her precious son would continue to hope against hope that she would be taken to spend the Chinese New Year with him because he "promised" to do so although he had failed repeatedly to pay his half share of her expenses which he previously "promised" to contribute. We see how 桃姐  would pick her stuffs carefully at the market, comment on others' cuisine, refuse to throw away all kinds of stuffs for memory's sake, how she remembers all kinds of details about various incidents in the history of her service of her host family and how she remembers the names of all the buddies of Roger who had tasted of her excellent cuisine when they were young and how she refuses to have her teeth replaced for fear of spending her boss's money and how warmly she felt  when she was looked after by her young master now that she was in trouble.

I like the way Anne Hui simply presents the images, without comment, without forced "drama", without sentimentality and let the subtle images tell her story with a very easy rhythm and the sparing use of string music, always unintrusive and natural, to enhance a little the inevitable unfurling of the fabric of fate of 桃姐. Anne Hui has developed into a true master of the celluloid media.