Tou ze

Ah Tao, an old maid in Hong Kong who have served Roger's family for four generations suffering stroke that make her deciding to retire and move into old people's place. She recover her stroke there, learns many thing and also is treated well. Every once a week, her master Roger visits her and accompanies her to take a walk. Sometimes, Roger's mom also comes to visit Ah Tao and bring her many useful things. Roger's family really love Ah Tao and feel thankful after what she has done for them about 60 years long by taking care of their family.

'A Simple Life' have shown that a simple story could give good impression and enjoyable to watch. The storyline is not complicated at all, the movie goes on slowly and very detail. Ann Hui as a director tries to make it safe and straight without any meaningful conflicts which sometimes could make audience feels bored watching it. The relationship between Roger and Ah Tao built really well, it shows how they support and take care one another even sometimes telling jokes. Credits should be given to Andy Lau and Deannie Yip, their acting is so natural as two characters who has known each other for a long time. Overall, 'A Simple Life' is a memorable Chinese movie I've seen recently. Actually I felt exhausted during watching 'A Simple Life' because of it's slow plot but when I rewind what I just saw, the movie isn't bad at all and has so much lesson to be learned from it. It teaches audience to respect and appreciate people who has done good things in lives and not forgetting their merit.

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

I saw this film during the film festival in Norway; it's been a long, long time since I watched a movie which captivated me even after the credit started to roll.

It's a movie which primarily focus on every little moment of an elderly woman, but it is never a dull moment as the first impression might seem. It's a movie which really drives you to care for the characters in a natural way as opposed to many films where they "force" you with "natural" gimmicks. No, this movie broke most typical western styles, but at the same time made it entertaining and thrilling.

It's a movie where there're no explosions, no foresight drama or no extreme twists... it's truly, a simple life, which showed me how simple it can be to be humble, and care for those we love.

The Palm Springs Film Festival ended with a day that included the best films of the fest. A Simple Life was on the list and was the icing on the cake of this great festival. This is a film about our connections to those we love, those we hardly know, and to ourselves. It is a sublimely graceful work and truly seamless. Deannie Yip, plays a maid who has worked for a family for many, many years. When she falls ill she moves to a long term care facility. Her struggle to move into her new role as an "ill person" is completely in keeping with what we know about her character. Great acting! The relationships she shares with the family members she's worked for are studies in the nuances of intimacy. Directed by Ann Hui....it's no wonder she's said to be "Asia's most important female director".

This is a simple film - two main characters with no blood relation and yet deeply connected to each other - and presumably made with a modest budget. It is slow, and arguably a tad long (but I am OK with it), but as the story evolves I begin to care about them.

As a film it is a great antidote to the sex, violence, intriguing plots, and CGI (I must admit I like some of those too) that we are so used to on the big screen these days. Director Ann Hui indicated the story was inspired by true events and I believe her. What makes this story unique is we are looking at love, respect and a feeling of duty and obligation between two human beings as if they were mother and son - but they are not. Instead, what started out as a servant-master relationship transcended itself to become something more sublime when the care-giver became incapacitated and the table was turned. When this happened the roles were reversed and yet it happened in such an unforced, natural and leisurely fashion.

There are tear-jerking moments, of course, but they came in such an unpretentious manner. The ending is as you would expect when age and illness took their toll on Tao Jie, played by Deannie Yip. And yet, I finished watching the film feeling uplifted, and with a strong sense of hope on humanity.