Review of A Simple Life (2012) by Johnny L — 12 Apr 2012

Based on the true story of producer Roger Lee, Ann Hui depicts the life of Taojie in a very simple way, successfully brought me and some audience to tears and feel emotions in the theatre naturally, without forcibly grabbing peoples' heart, or explosions, giant robots. Ann Hui also took the chance to present Sham Shui Po, a city in Hong Kong which is very poor but having human touch and maintaining local culture, and present the situation of elderly and Hong Kong film industry nowadys.

The screenplay written by Susan Chan lets the gestures of Taojie and other related characters can be caught in great detail. And there are the provisions of interactions and jokes (but only people understanding Cantonese can know what they mean). Deanie Ip gave out an excellent performance. She successfully substituted into the character. Facial expressions, the presentation of psychological changes, voice and body language are realistic, layering and reliably perfect as a person aged 70 or more. Other actors and actresses including real residents of the elderly home also performed naturally, with depth.