It hardly takes more than a quick glance at director Ann Hui On-wah's resume to pick up the fact her biggest successes - box office and critical - have been down-to-earth tales of ordinary lives in ordinary worlds.
Naturally two films spring immediately to mind. One of her earliest successes was Boat People, her 1982 depiction of the plight of Vietnamese refugees fleeing from a ruthless regime to an uncertain future.
Her most recent, of course, is the award-winning Summer Snow, which starred veteran actress Josephine Siao Fong-fong as a middle-aged woman grappling to cope with the demands of a modern world and a father-in-law struck by Alzheimer's disease.
Hui herself is a living testament to that resume: her short no-nonsense haircut, her unassuming dressing, and a matter-of-fact attitude to her status in the film world all paint a picture of a woman with her feet firmly planted on the ground.
The director often gives the impression of being ill at ease when attention is focused on her. She sits hunched over with hands tightly clasped on her thighs; there is very little hand movement except when she takes a puff from her cigarette. But she becomes considerably more animated when topics of discussion touch on her as a person and not only on her reputation as one of the most respected directors in Hong Kong.
Some might find her overly humble - I did - although she laughingly exclaims that she is anything but. However, she invalidates her claim in the next breath when she adds that she has plenty of offers to direct 'mainly because I come cheap'.