While I do read as little as possible before going into a movie, always be aware of what you just saw. In other words, don't blame the movie for not being what you expected it to be. Heard that a lot lately, like the trailer promised me this, the poster looked like this. It's not the movies fault, but the marketing people of the movie (another reason not to get too much information beforehand).This is a movie from Hong Kong, but is not action nor silly comedy. And even if some actors have done both, in this case they do slow paced drama. And they're doing a pretty solid job. While this is not the best drama I saw in 2014, this still is pretty good. It paints a picture (or more) of people trying to cope and understand things. To live in a weird world sort of ... And putting their thoughts and some interesting ones at that, out there ...

When I think about films from Hong Kong, usually I think of martial arts films like the old Shaw Brothers films or a Jackie Chan action picture. Now I am not saying that is all they make there, but traditionally this is the sort of film that you'd see imported here into the States. However, Ho-Cheung Pang's recent film, Aberdeen, is absolutely nothing like what I expected and it's a film that surprised me by its style.Aberdeen consists of several different stories that concern extended family members—though it takes you a while to realize that the folks you keep seeing are related. Additionally, exactly WHAT the film is about is very difficult to say—even after the movie is complete! This vagueness will no doubt bother some viewers and various interpretations of what it all means are very possible.The film concerns two sets of adult children of a grandfather. One story is about a woman who is obsessed with the notion that her mother, who has been dead for a decade, didn't really love her—though there really is no way to know for sure. In fact, she's so caught up with this that she doesn't realize that her husband is being unfaithful to her. Another story is about an aging model who wants to make it in films. However, her husband has an obsession—that their young daughter is not his. He behaves as if he loves her, but is obsessed that she is ugly, unlike him and his wife. I thought the child was adorable…but, I was not this weird man. As for the little girl, she has a bit of an obsession…about her dead lizard and its need to go to Heaven.So is all this worth seeing? Well, the acting is very nice and the direction quite good though quite slow paced. However, as for the story, it left me pretty cold. I am not sure how much meaning or significance there is to all this or if I even cared much about this. Mostly, I think, it's because I didn't care all that much about many of the characters. Had I felt a connection, surely I would have enjoyed it much more.

This film has a decided focus on women's issues including a look at sexual exploitation in the acting/modeling business, the constant pressure a woman feels to remain young-looking in order to keep their stinkin' husband from cheating, the life of self-loathing that can follow in the wake of certain mother/daughter issues, the bullying a female child is subjected to when she is not seen as being as pretty as her classmates, and the personal and professional difficulties that can come later in life for women judged less attractive. Given this focus, it is peculiar that the film appears to tell parents that they should not worry about their unattractive female children because a) the bullies are more likely to live with guilt over this, than the victims are to be damaged, and b) the girls can always choose to have plastic surgery when they're older! What I WANT to think is that there's a subtitle translation issue, and what was MEANT was that girls choosing plastic surgery should be made to feel no more stigma about doing so, than one should feel in choosing to be a "housewife" over other careers. I fear that this massaging of the message is merely wishful thinking on my part, however. Other qualms: In what world would a young attractive woman be horny for (I don't care if he's a physician of not) an old troll like Eric Tsang? Also, is it possible that a woman in HK – particularly one in the modeling/acting industry – would not have ever considered having oral sex with her husband? And even harder to believe, how is it possible that an extremely handsome and popular man would not have even ever asked his wife if she might consider oral sex? All that said, I enjoyed this film a lot, despite it's ultimate insensitivity to the very issues it observes.

"Aberdeen" ("Heung Gong Jai") is not your average Hong Kong movie. Why? Well, because it is neither martial arts, action nor silly romantic comedy. This movie is a drama of sorts that tells a story of various aspects of branches of the same family.The storyline is slow paced and very little actually does happen throughout the entire movie, and I was hoping that the movie would pick up pace and get up into gear, but it just never happened.While the storyline is weak, it should be said that the acting performances are quite good, especially by Eric Tsang and Louis Koo, whom both really carried the movie quite nicely.I haven't seen Miriam Yeung in a movie for a long, long time, so it was a nice surprise to see her on the screen again."Aberdeen" is not really a movie that stands out in the Hong Kong cinema, and it is a rather mundane experience to say the least. It seemed that director Ho-Cheung Pang had set out to accomplish too many things at the same time with this storyline, and not really managing to chew the piece that was bitten off.