A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Sunday, March 30, 2025

All Shall Be Well (Ray Yeung, 2024)

Lin-Lin Li and Petra Au in All Shall Be Well

Cast: Petra Au, Lin-Lin Li, Tai-Bo, Siu Yin Hui, Chung-Hang Leung, Fish Liew, Yung Ting Rachel Leung, Chai-Ming Lai, Cheng Cheuck Lam, Kiana Ng Ki Yan, Lai-Ha Li, Gia Yuk-Wah Yu, Luna Shaw. Screenplay: Ray Yeung. Cinematography: Ming-Kai Leung. Production design: Albert Poon. Film editing: Lai Kwun Tung. Music: Veronica Lee. 

Love doesn't really conquer all. Angie Wan (Petra Au) learns of its impotence in the face of the law when her wife, Pat Wu (Lin-Lin Li), dies. That's because the law doesn't recognize Pat as her wife, even though Pat's family accepted their relationship and referred to them as Aunty Pat and Aunty Angie. Still grief-stricken, Angie very reluctantly gives in to the family's decision concerning Pat's remains: Pressured by a religious adviser, the family wants them placed in a columbarium, even though Angie knows of Pat's wish to have her ashes scattered at sea. But the family's wishes concerning the apartment she shared with Pat for many years become far more crucial. Because Angie's name is not on the contract, she has no legal right to stay there. Angie and Pat became wealthy in business, whereas Pat's brother, Shing Wu (Tai-Bo), has failed to prosper. In overcrowded Hong Kong, the apartment is highly valuable. Writer-director Ray Yeung makes Angie's plight especially poignant by choosing not to turn it into a melodrama. The Wu family aren't portrayed as heartless monsters or villainous bigots, and the only real lesson to be drawn from the film is that Pat lacked foresight in failing to make a will that established Angie's right to the property. Yeung's low-key approach to the material is admirable, as is Petra Au's quietly revealing performance as Angie. 

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