Starring: Paw Hee-ching, Leung Chun-lung, Chan Lai-wun
Director: Ann Hui On-wah
Category: I (Cantonese)
Not much happens to the mother and son at the centre of The Way We Are, but the lack of high drama proves more absorbing than the overwrought theatrics that regularly assault movie-goers. This is one of the most consistent works in the career of director Ann Hui, crafted with seeming artlessness and an unpretentious quality that manages to hold one's attention for its entire 90 minutes.
The slice-of-life scenario by Lou Shiu-wa takes place in Tin Shui Wai, a place often in the headlines for its tragedies and also the locale of Lawrence Lau Kwok-cheung's street gang film, Besieged City. The Way We Are could not be more different, as it concentrates on its working-class prosaicness.
There is nothing sensational in the lives of widowed Mrs Cheung (Paw Hee-ching) - or Sister Kwai to her colleagues - and teenage son On (Leung Chun-lung). They live in a housing estate where she makes ends meet by working at the market and he loafs about during the summer holiday. What makes their story so watchable is the unaffected manner in which they interact with each other and members of their extended family. Most touching is the way big-hearted Kwai extends the family by befriending a new neighbour, a lonely grandmother (Chan Lai-wun, right) estranged from her closest relatives.