Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

How to write about simple movie? And how tell about simple life? How to live such life? Perhaps the answer to these questions lie exactly here. But first, it takes strength and courage to overcome yourself, your self-esteem, dreams and ambitions. It takes curiosity and thirst for life.The film comes into our minds easily and quickly shows us the power of being, of being born with the fate of being a human being in its overall appearance. Shows how quickly are changing the roles of young and old, it shows what should be the relationship between people, always. It shows where is the spring of goodness and that it is there because "You have to be at rest first with yourself before helping others"... with unabated good that enjoys anyone to whom it touches. That everyone accepts as a given, but feels the pain of its loss.How nice it is when our deepest desires are so simple. When we are truly, picky, but because we are looking for soul mates. How nice it is to experience the happiness of loving relatives, to know your place and perhaps, most importantly, not cheating in first place - not cheating yourself.http://vihrenmitevmovies.blogspot.com/

'A simple life' is a film about human kindness. About caring for others. About harmonious human relationships. Does this sound cheesy? It's not meant that way. The film shows how caring for one another can make a difference, but it's never sentimental and there's no tear jerking at all. The story centres around A Tao, a housekeeper who cooks and cleans for film producer Roger, who is not married and travels a lot. When returning home from one of his travels from Hong Kong to mainland China, A Tao doesn't open the door. She has had a stroke and after her stay in the hospital, she moves to an old people's home. Roger visits her regularly and gradually they become closer. At the start of the movie they are employer and employee, at the end they are friends. Director Ann Hui shows this process with small, symbolic scenes. When A Tao serves Roger his food in one of the first scenes, only one word is spoken, when she asks him to move something on the table to make room for the dish she has prepared. The contrast with another key scene, later on in the movie, is huge. After A Tao has recovered from the stroke, Roger takes her to the first screening of his new film and introduces her to movie stars as his godmother. Afterwards, they walk away hand in hand, chattering affectionately about the film business. A Tao visibly enjoys this party, and the attention she receives from her 'godson'. This is just one of the examples of the wonderful acting by Deannie Yip, a famous actress in the Hong Kong film industry but unknown to the rest of the world. In this film, she seemingly effortlessly plays A Tao first as a humble servant, then as a physically handicapped patient and also as a coquettish lady. How wonderful it must have been for her to receive a 'best actress'-award at the Venice Film Festival for her part as A Tao. The film focuses on the relationship between Roger and A Tao, and the development of their mutual appreciation. Apart from that, not much really happens. There are some humorous little scenes that will make you smile, as well as some more emotional ones. This is a slow and low-profile film, to be appreciated by a typical art-house audience.

Ann Hui's "A Simple Life" is a poignant and melancholic film about the relationship between an old servant and her companion, a successful film producer to whose family the servant had been in service with. It is a beautiful, touching, and, more importantly, human film. It lives and breathes its own life with the help of the cast and crew involved.The performances by Andy Lau as Roger the man and especially Deannie Yip as Ah Tao complement the movie's atmosphere as a whole. It is a warm, homely and crystal-clear one – subtly quiet, slightly louder when there's more people around. This film's screenplay relies more on the look on the actors' faces rather than relying on dialogue. This is a good thing. It allows the audience to focus on the performances in rapt attention. Relying on dialogue/subtitles more than often will distract from the movie. This is one movie which follows my rule for any great movie: subtlety is key. In many dramatic Chinese movies, the piano is a must for every music score, and it is overdone cheesily at many times. For this movie, however, composer Law Wing-Fai knows crucial music timing - the music is not overdone, yet not too minimal, and it knows when to appear at the right time. Correct.Hui's focused yet calm, serene direction basically drives Susan Chan's screenplay right at home. Hui seems to have learned a thing or two about human drama from greats like Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa – it is put into terrific use here. But Yip's performance as the altruistic Ah Tao is simply wonderful; her face and body language speak more than herself, her vocal qualities ranging from sharp balking to solemn calm. She is the heart of the movie, alive, beating and like her, moving quietly along as her life goes by. Lau is also very good here, being more stoic than usual but hiding uneasiness within his eyes.There is no great story without good characters, and "A Simple Life" has two great characters that drives the movie. Roger is a successful film producer, his whole family has migrated to America, and he's seemingly living the high life with his wealthy friends (featuring many non- intrusive cameos by Chinese celebrities including humorous ones by Sammo Hung, Tsui Hark and Anthony Wong) and yet he is more concerned with Ah Tao than everyone else. Ah Tao is an orphan since World War II and has since been serving Roger's family for four generations without expecting any sort of compensation in return. Roger doesn't mind taking care of Ah Tao as everyone else progresses around him – the same way Ah Tao doesn't mind living her life on her own at an old folks' home without Roger to help her around after a stroke attack – she feels guilty if he did that. The two characters are bonded, play with, even depend on each other as if they're the only two people who understand each other. A sort of mother-son love, but more powerful. Compare with later scenes with Roger and his real mother and you'll see the difference. I'm not implying Roger's real mother is a morally bad character, far from it. The relationship between them is more real and human than I had expected.Some will call this tedious and pretentious; others will call it pointless. I'm not sure, but I'd love to see movies like this where the characters unwrap the story around them as life progresses with its ups and downs. Sure, there are a few bits and pieces that did not really relate to the main character's story – but they make up the story and the characters as a whole – shaping this narrative up. It is a thing of beauty. So is life. So is this film - one of the year's best.Overall rating: 88%

Those who have watched "The way we are" (2008) will know exactly what to expect from today's Ann Hui – films that are delightfully free of sappy melodrama. In that film we share the ordinary, everyday life of several sibling-linked families, some more affluent but not really rich, others less fortunate but not quite on poverty line. There is no manipulation of the audience's emotions, but towards the end, there is one scene in which the affluent uncle (played beautifully by KO Chi-shum), hitherto quite typically no-nonsense business-like (although there is no sign of his looking down on poor relatives), matter-of-factly said to his bright sister-son something to the effect of "Don't worry if your exam results are not good enough to get you into university here. We (he and another uncle) will finance your university education abroad. That's the least we can do to reciprocate how your mother looked after us when we were small". The very casual way he said this is enough to bring a lump to your throat."A simple life" rings true in the same way – genuine emotion does not need melodramatic manipulation.As the last of a trilogy loosely, thematically linked ("my model of experimentation", said director Ann Hui) with the aforementioned and "The post-modern life of my aunt" (2006), "A simple life" is based on producer Roger Lee's true story with domestic maid Tao who had been part of his life from day one, and became a default mother when his entire family emigrated to the US. In the film, Deannie Yip and Andy Lau are pitch-perfect as Tao and Roger, drawing from their numerous previous screen corroborations as mother and son. In an interview with Time Out, Hong Kong, director Ann Hui also intimated that on the process of aging, she has deep personal experience with her own mother. In the film, Roger took Tao to a premiere of a film he produced, but Hui said she had second thoughts about doing the same with her mother, fearing that the reaction might be "Are you giving me hints? (about putting her in an old folks' home)" Starting with Tao going to an old folks' home and ending at her natural death at old age, the simple story is simply told, with surprisingly gentle humour. Through inevitable vicissitudes, human goodness and compassion surface. There are some eccentric characters and flawed human nature to various degrees, but no real villains. As in "The way we are" the warmth that brims over always brings a lump to your throat, such as Tao at the old folks' home receiving a call from Roger and friends at a card game, thinking of her – middle-aged men that she had know since they were little kids."A simple life" is a film that is true to life. An added bonus to local viewers is a delightful proliferation of cameos from household names in the Hong Kong cinematic scene.