After a two-decade hiatus from filmmaking, Chen picked up a video camera again, filming Baby and her other dog Jessie at home before she interviewed other dog lovers in the city.

This Darling Life is Hong Kong's first feature-length documentary that focuses on animal-human relations. It features an eclectic cast of characters, including the 58-year-old director, guitarist-singer Paul Wong Koon-chung of the band Beyond and his dog, Bach, and Hong Kong Dog Rescue's Sally Andersen, whose visit to the government kennels changed the course of her life.

Most of the characters in the film are from humble backgrounds, however, and they include a homeless man living under a bridge with his dog, a woman who takes her mongrel out in a baby carriage because dogs aren't allowed in her apartment block and a veterinarian nurse who finances and runs a private animal shelter.

'This film is a small, independent project,' says Chen, who adopted her two dogs 14 years ago. 'The documentary does not have big names, but it reflects a little seed of compassion in each of us.

I am interested in examining the unique relations between people and their animals because it mirrors our relationship with family and friends.'

Chen reveals how she deals with Baby's sickness and recalls other painful memories in her life, such as her difficult relationship with her late mother and father. Her interviewees are equally frank.

'The characters are 100 per cent honest with their emotions,' Chen says. 'They're not afraid to disclose the most private part of their life and that takes a lot of courage.'

Animal-themed movies have enjoyed commercial success before, but This Darling Life makes no attempt to dramatise the stories or anthropomorphise the dogs. Instead it offers an honest, non-judgmental look at the dog lovers, and lets them speak without any additional commentary.

The subjects' genuine love and devotion for their canines offer inspiration to audiences in a city where increasing numbers of people keep pets and where cases of abuse, neglect and abandonment are still rampant.

This Darling Life marks the filmmaker's return to the movie screen. Before busying herself with making television commercials and teaching at universities, Chen directed and produced four films for Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers in the 1980s; the last was in 1987.

Under the name Angela Chan, she directed Cherie Chung in the 1983 thriller Maybe it's Love, and worked with Anthony Wong Chau-sang in the award-winning My Name Ain't Suzie, dubbed at the time as Hong Kong's answer to The World of Suzie Wong in 1985. She also worked as the assistant director of Jackie Chan's Dragon Lord in 1982.

'I did not plan to return to filmmaking,' Chen says. 'But I was definitely excited and happy about it because of the subject matter.'

She acknowledges that 'it's a big jump' from directing big-studio features to making an independent documentary.

'But this was something I really wanted to do. I also found the project much more meaningful and fulfilling because I am able to contribute something to our community,' Chen says.

When members of the local film community heard about her project, they jumped to offer assistance.

Chen and her crew spent 900 days, shot 200 hours of footage, met 1,000 dogs and interviewed 86 people, culminating in the production of the 90-minute documentary. 'Many of my crew took a token fee to work on this film,' she says.

The main title sequence was done by yU+co, a design studio set up by two Hong Kong brothers, Garson and Roland Yu (the studio's works include the main title sequences for Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain). One of the Yu brothers showed Chen's documentary to a friend at film distributor Golden Scene, which secured its release at a major cinema franchise.

Locally produced documentaries hardly ever make it to cinema screens and Chen did not expect that her low-budget film would be any different. The director, who studied film at the University of California at Los Angeles, says she is simply lucky. 'I feel very blessed, [and] this seems to be a present from my dog, Baby,' she says.

Andersen feels interest in the movie is part of a larger trend.

'People are becoming less interested in non-stop sex and violence,' she says. 'Hollywood has also moved towards the more gentle, less blockbuster-type films. Whether the public will like This Darling Life remains to be seen. It's a very different kind of film, very raw in parts, funny in others, but I think everyone will be able to empathise at some level with at least one of the characters.'

Chen plans to donate 5 per cent of the film's net proceeds to private shelters and animal charities that supported her film - some of which are featured in the documentary. Most of all, the filmmaker hopes This Darling Life will help inspire more people to treat animals and their fellow human beings better.

This Darling Life opens today