Director Ann Hui (All About Love, HKC 2011) is an expert image-maker of daily life. In her latest, which one five of the top Hong Kong Film Awards, she depicts the relationship between a film producer named Roger (Andy Lau) and the aging household servant Ah Tao who has looked after four generations of his family. Though it focuses predominantly on these two protagonists and the shifting balance of caretaking they undergo together as Ah Tao’s health worsens, A Simple Life also offers an expansive and humanitarian look at the range of elderly people in Hong Kong, many of whom have been abandoned by relatives who are overseas. To play the mild-mannered Roger, Lau presents a captivating departure from his usual larger-than-life roles while Deanie Ip (Lau’s godmother in real life) shows Ah Tao’s tenderness and pride as she faces her body’s diminishment.


Written by Susan Chan, Roger Lee. Photographed by Yu Lik Wai. With Andy Lau, Deanie Ip, Qin Hailu, Wang Fuli. (117 min. In Cantonese with subtitles, China Lion Film Distribution)