The 27th Hong Kong Film Awards, held last week, said it all. Macho males remain at the centre of this society compared to females, especially the old and unwedded ones. Depicting brotherhood, loyalty and betrayal among three heroes, the war epic, The Warlords, took home eight of the 19 honours. In contrast, the tragicomedy looking into the sober experience of an old lady, The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, won only the best actress award, despite its generally favourable reviews.
The number of awards reflects not merely the artistic achievements of these films, but also the values of our society when it comes to gender and age.
Old women living alone are an invisible, and thus forgotten, group in many societies. But their number is growing rapidly. The United States alone has some 25 million unmarried women aged 45 and above. In Hong Kong, the number of unwedded women living alone rose to 182,000 in 2006, a sharp rise of 44 per cent from five years ago.
Though set in today's Shanghai, The Postmodern Life of My Aunt tells of the desires, fears and dilemmas of this hidden group. The foremost fear of older women is their financial insecurity. Without a husband and family to lean on, they often act as frugal, defensive, and even eccentric, individuals. These traits tend to disguise their true selves as generous, warm-hearted and forgiving people, resulting in social labelling and alienation.
Old women suffer from emotional vulnerability. As auntie's unsuccessful romance in the movie suggests, age does not automatically remove the yearning for love and companionship. But that desire exposes them to another danger, making them more likely to fall prey to ill-intending suitors with an eye on their savings, however small.
Another misery of old women, as the story hints, is the lack of a care-taker in their later stage of life. Because of an injury, auntie is compelled to return to her estranged husband and daughter who live in a deserted industrial city.
Thus, the once-sophisticated and artistic English teacher ended her adventure in modern Shanghai: she called off her defiance to an unsatisfactory marriage in exchange for bread and a roof over her head.