The Way We Are

If you want to watch movies about special effects, explosives here & there or whatever, go rent Ironman or Transformers, this is Ann Hui's The Way We Are, some of you may complain of boredom, with the lack of pace in the story flow, I didn't, I wept.

What amazes me the most is it's simplicity, their daily lives, activities, family problems, those things that you might encounter everyday, & how to cherish them. You don't need to be an alien to become interested in this movie, if you feel bored, then this movie is definitely not for you.

I praise Ann's bravery in doing a film about our problems in life, especially in families, & she made me realize there is so much things in life than just fancy, branded goods & not to become enslaved by them.

My vote might be deceiving because this movie is pretty boring unless you actually watch the whole movie you will probably get bore after the first 20 minutes no wait after 10 minutes. However after watching it with tear flowing out of your eye because you're bore to death will you started to like the main character. The strong point of this movie is about characterization, making you feel for the main character and with it show you the good side of humanity. Even though this isn't base on real life story after you watch the movie it will feel like one which is another strong point. While I was watching it I was pretty much bore to death so I can tell why some people give this movie a 1 but if you actually finish it you will enjoy it like I did. In a sense this is like Twilight saga, in which only some people like it while other cry from how worthless it is(my description), The Way We Are will make some people feel emotional about it while other will just turn it off after 10 or so minutes. So if you really want a good movie base on characterization enjoy this one but if you want something surprising or out of place then don't bother with this one. It is just too simple for it to be anything....except a slice of life :).

The movie is like a virtual show of the life of a woman in the newly developed area of Hong Kong. It showcases the everyday life of the woman and her family. It arouses our shared memories. Ir provokes our sense of belongings to the city. A movie that is belonging to Hong Kong. A gem to record our daily life.

The literal meaning of its original Chinese title is "the day and night of Tin Shui Wai", Tin Shui Wai is a northwestern area of Hong Kong and is noted for its public housing estates, where mostly low-income families inhibit, Ann Hui's heartfelt picture centers on a single mother Mrs. Cheung (Paw) and her teenage son Ka-on (Leung), through their kitchen-sink daily life, it cogently reflects our modern society's interpersonal relations with spontaneous casualness and certainly Hui's best work I've ever watched (I have yet to see A SIMPLE LIFE 2011)!

The film runs effortlessly to rotate around Cheung and Ka-on's quotidian doings, Cheung works in a supermarket and Ka-on idles at their boxy apartment since it is summer vacation. Granny Leung Foon (Lai-wan Chan), a new neighbor who lost her daughter recently and her son-in-law remarried, Leung Foon's solitary life is singled out naturally through her entry scenes (buy a paltry portion of beef for herself, the meat vendor even fastidiously complains one of her coins is black and demands a swap), records more closely to her meals (the same beef fried with cabbage being consumed in both lunch and dinner), the artistry is all in the details. Leung Foon is typically protective and penny-pinching, but her heart will gradually open to Cheung and Ka- on, since a near neighbor is better than a distant cousin, among them, a sensitive surrogate family bond is developing and culminating after a tearjerking talking heart to heart on a bus back from a fruitless attempt to visit Foon's grandson.

Meanwhile, the backstory of Cheung and the tacit alienation between Cheung and her mother, her well-off brothers are all steadily unraveling, Cheung is a woman full of pride, she can undertake hardships, she never solicit any remuneration for bringing up two brothers, but her mother thinks it is her tomfoolery to struggle in poverty, this creates a knot between them, but family is always family, there is no grudges among them, Cheung's swallow nest congee betokens that tellingly.

Hee Ching Paw and Lai-wan Chan are pitch perfect in their lifelike performances (which incredibly counters their theatrical training), newcomer Chun-lung Leung is also a force of nature, here is a young boy without any rebellious traits (no gamble, no girlfriend problem, no drug abuse, no religious hindrance), his upbringing is the most laudable feat and yet Hui achieves that by no hyperbole at all. If you are a Hong Kong cinema connoisseur, you will be thrilled to see a cameo from a comely Idy Chan (15 years after her retirement from the screen).

Ann Hui is a tower of strength in current HK cinema scenery, she is less internationally- recognized than Johnny To, but her cannon is so rich and diverse and her unique mastery of humanistic care should enlist her name among the most overlooked directors of all time!

"Tin shui wai dik yat yu ye" ("The Way We Are" in English) is the first Ann Hui movie that I've seen, although I understand that she's a world-renowned director. The movie focuses on a widow and her son in a run-down part of Hong Kong. As the movie progresses, they meet other people, each with their own backstories.

This is sort of like a Jim Jarmusch movie, in that it's deliberately slow-moving and emphasizes the characters' relationships among each other. If you're the type who needs constant action, then you'll want to avoid this movie like the plague. Indeed, a previous reviewer found it pointless. I thought that it did a fair if not great job focusing on the people's interactions with each other in threadbare conditions. I think that it was in one of these sorts of apartments where Edward Snowden hid after exposing the NSA's spying apparatus, before he fled to Russia.

Apparently, durians have one of the strongest smells of any fruit.