Quiet film shows quiet Hong Kong in the 1950s
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A SMALL, intimate movie captures the quiet drama of a young woman's life without feeling forced or exaggerated.
It’s not a visceral movie, but thanks to finding the natural beauty in the subject, it never feels slight, either.
Hong Kong films from the early to mid-1980s are mostly associated with grotesque renderings of life: emerging skyscrapers, the vilest of businessmen, the most brutal cops and gangsters.
Two such films, “Police Story” (1986) and “A Better Tomorrow” (1987) won the Best Film awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
They contrast greatly with the less “substantial” but more significant “Ah Ying,” the winner in 1984.
Further emphasizing the lack of heft is the lack of information online about this film.
Its Wikipedia entry runs only one sentence, there’s nothing in the synopsis section on IMDB, and Rotten Tomatoes lists no professional reviews.
The available information is quite sparce; it appears the cast and crew worked on a dozen or so films before this one, making cross-referencing difficult or impossible.
The movie, sometimes call “Boon Bin Yen” or “Ban Bian Ren,” seems to exist apart, in a bubble of its own.
That feel pervades everything, including the important setting of the movie: Hong Kong.
Not the brazen city of the other movies, it’s the city only tip toeing towards modernism.
Ah Ying’s parents frown on her listening to rock music, and her visit to a screening of the controversial classic “The Lin Family’s Shop” (1959) is interrupted.
More than a loud outpouring, though, it’s a quiet revolution, one more akin to our times, and no less intense.
‘Ah Ying’ (半边人, 1983)
• Where to see it: The film is available to watch for free on video-streaming site Youku (http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjc5NTEyNjMy.html).
• What to see: A domestic story of the titular young woman in Hong Kong. She attempts to avoid the monotony of a job selling fish at her family’s market stall and a failed relationship by finding a part-time job at a film school. Soon, she’s taking acting classes led by an enigmatic teacher who studied in the US.
• Brian’s score: 9/10
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