[Ming Pao News] Xu Anhua is Xu Anhua,
she sets out from ordinary alleys and
brings inconspicuous little people to the screen.
Tell the audience to stop hurriedly for a while, and the people who
watch the drama are moved and resonated.
The reason why Xu Anhua is Xu Anhua is that she does not over-exaggerate and stops everything. Drama comes from life, and life is impermanent after all; no matter what kind of sadness or joy she shoots, it is more about the world than the genre.
"Sneak into the night with the wind, moisten things silently", which just shows the bearing and mind of "Sister Tao". Yes, the fate of Sister Tao (Ye Dexian) is pitiful. The subtitle at the beginning of the film said that she had no parents since she was a child, lived with her adoptive parents, and began to be a maid when she was in her teens. Since then, he has worked in the Liang family for more than 60 years and has served five generations. Sister Tao was never married and had no relatives or reasons. In her later years, she suffered from a stroke and had to live in a nursing home with an unsatisfactory environment. It was someone else, which was good tragic material, but Xu Anhua deliberately downplayed the drama. In the scene of the nursing home, Sister Tao, who was staggering on her feet, went to the toilet, and suddenly someone fainted in it. Tao's friend Mei Gu (Xu Suying) couldn't find her again. When the audience thought that Sister Tao was in an accident, they saw another mother-in-law being put into an ambulance, and Sister Tao watched her leave.
Deliberately avoiding the sensational
mother-in-law and she will never return. The daughter (Jiang Yuyi) came back to pick up the relics of her deceased mother and burst into tears. "Sister Tao" is of course the story of Sister Tao, but it is also about her parents-in-law and women of different ages. The daughter often complained that her mother only loved her son, but the son never showed up. Aunt Mei is only middle-aged and has been admitted to a nursing home due to long-term kidney dialysis. Her gray-haired mother often comes to visit. After Sister Tao's first stroke, her health deteriorated every time her condition deteriorated and she had another stroke. Sometimes she only explained it through dialogue, and sometimes the scene changed, and she was a different person. Chen Shuxian's script and Xu Anhua's handling deliberately avoided sensationalism. They did not regard Sister Tao as a special case and a tragic figure that made people cry. Instead, she was placed in the middle of a group of characters facing life, old age, sickness and death. Sometimes she looks at people, and sometimes people look at her. Nursing homes come and go, and everyone ends up in the same way.
Some characters have little space, but his/her life is intriguing. Licorice actor Liang Tian plays a well-dressed inmate who can speak English. How did he end up in the hospital? Why was that old man fascinated by the crystal ball music box? Qin Pei's uncle Jian moves freely. Does he have a family and children? The director of the home, Miss Cai (Qin Hailu), is very loyal to her duties and will be back on duty in the new year, but when Sister Tao asks about her family, she does not say a word. In the world of "Sister Peach", even the characters that pass by in the blink of an eye have knots or difficulties, and they are all flesh and blood - except for those characters who cameo by celebrities.
Sister Tao may have been considered a blessing. In her later years, Roger (Andy Lau), the young master of the Liang family, took good care of them, and the two were like mother and son. Roger is slowly changing: at the beginning of the film, the Liang family has long since immigrated, and only Roger and Sister Tao are left in Mei Foo's former residence. Roger often travels on business, and it has become a habit for the home to be managed by Sister Tao. When Roger opened his hands, he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about Sister Tao, and he didn't communicate much with her. He didn't say goodbye when he traveled far; he was in the film industry, and he was busy with official business, so he probably only had himself and his work in his eyes - after all, there is a huge gap between old workers and the film industry. bipolar world! It was not until he came back from a business trip that he found out that Sister Tao had suffered a stroke, and then he noticed that the mother who had brought him up and spoiled him very much turned out to be very old. Ye Dexian's performance is of course good, Andy Lau's restraint is also in place, the most important thing is the chemical effect they add up. Roger took Sister Tao to watch the premiere of his movie. After the show, they walked and chatted on the street in full costumes. Sister Tao held Roger's arm, and the camera captured their backs. It was a warm evening.
Prosperity, love and optimism
Hui Anhua continued to carry forward the spirit of love and optimism after "Days and Nights in Tin Shui Wai". The people of the world in "Sister Tao" are not bad, the problem of the elderly is indeed serious, and the equipment and space of the nursing home are not enough, but "Sister Tao" insists on criticizing any welfare system, or people who use elderly services to make money (nursing homes) The boss is Huang Qiusheng, where can it go bad?). On the contrary, the characters are human and the community has feelings (from Mei Foo Xin Yu to Xinglin Nursing Home on Yiju Street), and Sister Tao is a model of good people. She is always smiling, very tolerant (keeps giving to Uncle Qian Jian), nostalgic (reluctant to give up that old Singer sewing machine), and takes good care of her friends (big bird's nest is shared with the residents). After being a servant for decades, she was used to thinking about everything for others and didn't think much about her personal feelings; the Liang family returned to Hong Kong with three generations and invited her to take a group photo. The Liang family treats Sister Tao very well (the late Mr. Liang designated a house to keep her in her old age), just like relatives.
Women of the previous generation
watched "Days and Nights in Tianshuiwei" a few years ago. I saw the figure of my mother. She worked hard in the garment factory for most of her life. Later, because of the northward shift of production, she was forced to change careers in middle age. Watching "Sister Peach" this time, I remembered my late grandmother, who lived with us all the time. My parents worked part-time, and my siblings were brought up by my grandmother. When I was in college, my grandmother accidentally fell while going to a restaurant and had to go to the hospital for surgery. After the operation, she was unable to move, and because her family had to go to work and school, she had no choice but to be admitted to a nursing home, and has not set foot at home since then. After she was admitted to the nursing home, she moved less, and her body was not as good as before. Every time I went to visit her, I was very heartbroken. My grandmother likes to be neat and tidy. She used to clean the house every day. Nursing homes are also understaffed. Elderly people who are not good at walking will sit in a wheelchair for several hours or even a whole day without moving. Eating, bathing, resting, and taking medicine are all streamlined operations ("Sister Tao" a girl gives several at the same time. feeding the elderly). Sometimes when I look back, I don't know how my grandmother lived in those years. Nursing homes are the point of no return. Over the years, my grandmother's health has deteriorated, and the homes have been transferred several times. Finally, she passed away in 2001, exactly 10 years ago.
My grandmother told us a story of three years and eight months. She said that in the most difficult time, her son had to be given away soon after he was born; when she was young, she even worked as a coolie on the wharf. How can we imagine the experience of the previous generation today? I can't count how many women's hardships and hardships there are in "Sister Peach". It's not because of "Sister Peach" and "Days and Nights at Tin Shui Wai", or because of Xu Anhua, these unremarkable Hong Kong stories will make their way to the cinema screens that are occupied by exaggerated stereoscopic images today?
Wen Jiaming
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