After suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people's home.
Gentle, moving but spurning all hint of sentimentality, A Simple Life is often funny and even joyful.
I wish I liked Ann Hui's praised-by-some...or even a little.
A film that will fill you with a sense of hope, and a glimpse into the realities of life in modern Hong Kong.
A sad and sombre film that uses a plangent piano soundtrack to tug at the heartstrings, but tempers this with a downbeat reality.
The film is unsentimental in its depiction of the indignities of old age.
Once the alternative to a lonesome old age has been established, the film hasn't anywhere left to go but "the only end of age".
Director Hui shows a different side to Hong Kong cinema in a tender drama that's illuminated by the marvellous Ip.
Ann Hui's film is a searing account of the indignities of old age, and a moving paean to the companionship that can render those indignities bearable.
It's a gentle, flawlessly observed picture, moving but never sentimental, about getting old, fulfilling familial duties, killing time and being killed by time.
Avoids the obvious pitfalls of its tender subject matter by being compassionate but never sentimental, heartfelt but not tear-jerking and at once very funny and deeply moving.
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Friday August 10, 2012, until Thursday August 16, 2012. More info: www.dca.org.uk
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday August 17, 2012, until Thursday August 23, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow from Friday August 24, 2012, until Monday August 27, 2012. More info: http://www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre/
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