Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.
If your account is linked with Facebook and you have turned on sharing, this will show up in your activity feed. If not, you can turn on sharing
here
.
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
Director:
Thomas Vinterberg
Stars:
Mads Mikkelsen,
Thomas Bo Larsen,
Annika Wedderkopp
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director:
Tate Taylor
Stars:
Emma Stone,
Viola Davis,
Bryce Dallas Howard
Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
Director:
Bennett Miller
Stars:
Brad Pitt,
Jonah Hill,
Philip Seymour Hoffman
A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Director:
Pedro Almodóvar
Stars:
Antonio Banderas,
Elena Anaya,
Marisa Paredes
An indigenous clan-based people living in harmony with nature find their way of life threatened when violent interlopers from another culture arrive, intent on seizing their natural resources and enslaving them.
An airline pilot saves almost all his passengers on his malfunctioning airliner which eventually crashed, but an investigation into the accident reveals something troubling.
Director:
Robert Zemeckis
Stars:
Nadine Velazquez,
Denzel Washington,
John Goodman
A psychological thriller of a grieving mother turned cold-blooded avenger with a twisty master plan to pay back those who were responsible for her daughter's death.
The film received a small release in Hong Kong in September 2011 in order to qualify for the 84th Annual Academy Awards. However it didn't get a wide release in the same country until March 2012. See more »
I seriously do not know why it took this movie so long to be in the cinemas. It is one of the defining works of the year and essentially a simple movie about simple and unexplored characters of Hong Kong people. Ms Ann Hui is truly at her very best once again. After winning awards for The Way We Were, Hui strikes the cord to the highest potential by casting Andy Lau and former box office queen of 80s Deanie Ip whose chemistry dates back to almost 23 years old in their last corroboration. It is truly a delight to sit through a movie like this and while this being one Hui's most accepted work to the general public; she never strays away from her principles and values. At its core, it is a film about human interactions, feelings, relationships and old age. One day, we will die and old age is a burning topic for the baby boomer's generation.
Deanie Ip puts in a career defining performance and as she puts it, acting as an old lady is not difficult at all, as she is just playing herself. The manner she manages to make the audience enjoy her character the Chinese servant of Hong Kong family for 3 generations is impressive to say the least. Life is never easy and sometimes, we just tend to forget those people who work their life within behind the scene, with heart, soul and pure dedication. These are people who gave up on having a family of their own and instead spend their whole life raising other people's families. Nowadays, the loyalty and the servant and master relationships are a lot more different. As mentioned before, Ip's characters work so well because there is an underlying chemistry between Andy Lau and her. Lau puts in an underrated performance that doesn't allow him to overshadow the main character. It is a compliment that it is because of the understated manner Lau manages to approach his character that allows Deanie Ip's the spotlight and attention.
A Simple Life has already won a lot of awards and not to mention plenty of admiration from a new league of fans young and old. Hui has been around a long time and has never strayed from the commercialism of Hong Kong cinema. To finally witness an Ann Hui film making splash at the box office is really as a good a feeling as watching a fine piece of cinema. In many ways this is a true and realistic look at simple aspects of life, characters and old age. It is this simplistic that makes Hui's films so different, enjoyable and ultimately touching. All in all, A Simple Life is a Hong Kong movie and more importantly a movie that takes us along the ride, respects those around us and allows the audience to reflect upon their own lives. Movies like these only comes along once in a generation and while this may not be Hui's best work, but in terms of balancing the needs of the Hong Kong people and her own vision, it is certainly the most accessible of her works. A fine piece of cinematic experience
Neo rates it 9/10
www.thehkneo.com
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
I seriously do not know why it took this movie so long to be in the cinemas. It is one of the defining works of the year and essentially a simple movie about simple and unexplored characters of Hong Kong people. Ms Ann Hui is truly at her very best once again. After winning awards for The Way We Were, Hui strikes the cord to the highest potential by casting Andy Lau and former box office queen of 80s Deanie Ip whose chemistry dates back to almost 23 years old in their last corroboration. It is truly a delight to sit through a movie like this and while this being one Hui's most accepted work to the general public; she never strays away from her principles and values. At its core, it is a film about human interactions, feelings, relationships and old age. One day, we will die and old age is a burning topic for the baby boomer's generation.
Deanie Ip puts in a career defining performance and as she puts it, acting as an old lady is not difficult at all, as she is just playing herself. The manner she manages to make the audience enjoy her character the Chinese servant of Hong Kong family for 3 generations is impressive to say the least. Life is never easy and sometimes, we just tend to forget those people who work their life within behind the scene, with heart, soul and pure dedication. These are people who gave up on having a family of their own and instead spend their whole life raising other people's families. Nowadays, the loyalty and the servant and master relationships are a lot more different. As mentioned before, Ip's characters work so well because there is an underlying chemistry between Andy Lau and her. Lau puts in an underrated performance that doesn't allow him to overshadow the main character. It is a compliment that it is because of the understated manner Lau manages to approach his character that allows Deanie Ip's the spotlight and attention.
A Simple Life has already won a lot of awards and not to mention plenty of admiration from a new league of fans young and old. Hui has been around a long time and has never strayed from the commercialism of Hong Kong cinema. To finally witness an Ann Hui film making splash at the box office is really as a good a feeling as watching a fine piece of cinema. In many ways this is a true and realistic look at simple aspects of life, characters and old age. It is this simplistic that makes Hui's films so different, enjoyable and ultimately touching. All in all, A Simple Life is a Hong Kong movie and more importantly a movie that takes us along the ride, respects those around us and allows the audience to reflect upon their own lives. Movies like these only comes along once in a generation and while this may not be Hui's best work, but in terms of balancing the needs of the Hong Kong people and her own vision, it is certainly the most accessible of her works. A fine piece of cinematic experience
Neo rates it 9/10