How to write about simple movie? And how tell about simple life? How to live such life? Perhaps the answer to these questions lie exactly here. But first, it takes strength and courage to overcome yourself, your self-esteem, dreams and ambitions. It takes curiosity and thirst for life.The film comes into our minds easily and quickly shows us the power of being, of being born with the fate of being a human being in its overall appearance. Shows how quickly are changing the roles of young and old, it shows what should be the relationship between people, always. It shows where is the spring of goodness and that it is there because "You have to be at rest first with yourself before helping others"... with unabated good that enjoys anyone to whom it touches. That everyone accepts as a given, but feels the pain of its loss.How nice it is when our deepest desires are so simple. When we are truly, picky, but because we are looking for soul mates. How nice it is to experience the happiness of loving relatives, to know your place and perhaps, most importantly, not cheating in first place - not cheating yourself.http://vihrenmitevmovies.blogspot.com/

It's simple to say that 'A Simple Life' isn't a typical Andy Lau film. There are no guns nor violence, nor indeed any action at all – this is as simple as film-making gets.After 60 years working for a family as a maid, Ah Tao, played excellently by Deanie Ip, suffers a stroke and so retires. Not wanting to be a burden, she chooses to live in a retirement home in conditions much worse than she is used to. Lau plays Roger, the sole member of the family Ah Tao worked for to remain in Hong Kong, who takes time to visit Ah Tao as often as possible in tween his busy career in film production and learning to cook and clean for himself for once.That's it: plain and simple. Films like this demand good performances from the cast, more so than creative direction or writing, and the two leads deliver, notably Ip as the looks-far-too-good-to-be-in-her- seventies Ah Tao. Lau is also good in a role that sees him have to deal more with shooting facial expressions than shooting a gun. Smaller roles are often played by uber-mega-colossal stars of Hong Kong cinema. Sammo Hung, Raymond Chow, Hark Tsui and Anthony Wong, to name a few, all pop up here and there, adding a sense of humour while watching.While the film is designed to be emotional and sad, there is no doubt that old people are funny, with facial expressions and stupid behaviour aplenty, giving the film a good balance.You can't expect an explosive film, but it never tries to be, with Ann Hui's work being simple, yet effective.www.politic1983.blogspot.com

This film is about a maid who is forced to retire after a stroke. Her life and the relationships around her change drastically."A Simple Life" is a touching story about a maid who has served a family for 60 years. She was seen as a servant in the beginning of the film, with her employers having no emotional attachment whatsoever. It saddens me to see how Ah Tao was treated with little respect. As the story progresses, the emotional connections and the direction of servitude turn 180 degrees, making a heartwarming and satisfactory change.The environment in the old age home is strikingly authentic as well, from the residents, staff, the relationships between residents and relationships between residents and their children. How they care for each other is touching to say the least.There are many effective and powerful scenes. The very brief 5 second scene of the old man walking in an alley with a young woman has so much emotion in it, I felt this spectrum of feelings towards this old man, from shame to anger. The numerous scenes with Ah Tao's humble personality are also very moving. A picture is really worth more than a thousand words.It is also striking to see how the old age home manager speaks accented Cantonese, something that is very usual among old age home staff. This adds to the authenticity of the film. Another striking thing is that she is just 5 months younger than the actress playing Ah Tao. Who would have guessed!In short, "A Simple Life" tells a heartwarming story of a humble, dedicated and selfless maid. The plot is so strong, that it moves people without the need of special effects or fancy sets. "A Simple Life" is a refreshing change for theHong Kong cinema, as it finally churns out a quality drama.

Life for a parent is a bad deal. You raise someone for 20 years and then are abandoned by them to face death for the next 40 years. Strangely, it's the only selfless thing we do as human beings. But it seems so unfair, someone takes care of you, you should take care of them as well right?That is the central idea of A Simple Life. The story is about Toh Jie, transliterated as "Sister Peach" (played by Deannie Yip), is a household maid who has worked for the Leung family for 60 years. She still currently takes care of the young master, Roger (played by Andy Lau). Her health deters and now she in need of Roger to take care of her.Deannie Yip owns this role. She reminded me of my grandmother at times, who is currently in an old folk's home. She has the physicality of an old person down, the little tics and the way you lean to take off weight when you walk. She deserved that Venice Film Festival award. Heck, give her more!Andy Lau has come a long way since his younger days of "playing-a-heartthrob-who- dies-at-the-end-of-the-movie-to-his own-pop-soundtrack" thing. He has learned how to use the subtlety of his face and knows when to chew up a moment. There's one noteworthy scene where Roger is hanging out with his childhood friends and they all decide to give Sister Peach a call and reminisce about the great food dishes she used to make for them. This aches Roger as he realizes this is basically how people will remember her. And I urge people to watch Andy Lau in that moment.There is a little detail with the layout of the old folk's home I wanted to address: it had an open door at the entrance. Many times the old people just opened and closed the door and exited freely. My mother and I debated the reality of this, usually these old folk's home have a exit button that unlocks the door for safety purposes. There are scenes where Sister Peach and other elderly people are opening and closing this door without supervision. What's worse is the old folk's home is right across from a mechanic's shop! Thinking more about this, it dawned on me: this is an aesthetic choice. It is probably unrealistic but what that aesthetic choice lead me to consider how dangerous the situation was for the elderly people.As I realized this, there was many aesthetic choices in the story that were designed to raise a discussion about how we should treat and handle elderly people. I admired its subtlety. For example, there's a scene where Roger and his sister discuss how Sister Peach's expenses should be handled and it gets pretty dark as it starts to sound like a business transaction.There are a lot of funny moments in the movie and thank goodness for it. It is very grim to watch old people suffering and deteriorating in an old folk's home. The film knows that and shows that there is indeed laughter in their lives, and Sister Peach does not have it too bad. The story is not about how the whole world is against her. We never linger on her suffering. Things are never dialed up to eleven. It retains a lot of realism (a lot of the old people in the old folk's home seem to belong there) and still manages to find drama within it. Good work, Ann Hui!That's one major thing I appreciated about this movie: it does not set out to make you cry. It could have easily done so using melodramatic sensibilities and it does not set that as it's goal.I did not cry at the end, but I felt the touching cleanse of a cry. I left the theater thinking about how I should treat my grandparents, my parents someday and even the elderly in general. Sometimes they need help walking down from a bus, someone to talk to or simply they just need to feel needed. The film's heart is in the right place and I ultimately agree with it's sentiments: nobody that raised and took care of you deserves to die alone.For more reviews, please visit my blog @ http://hkauteur.wordpress.com