I have been putting off watching this documentary
about the Hong Kong director Ann Hui for a while because I wanted to see
a few more of her films before doing so. Of her 31 films, I have only seen
ten of them - and some a very long time ago and the last one being July Rhapsody
in 2003. Since then, she has made some of her most critically acclaimed films.
It is not because of lack of access - I have nearly ten of her films that
I have yet to see but Hui is a tough watch. Her films can be very pessimistic
with unpleasant outcomes. I have not been in the mood for that often these
days. The real world sucks enough. But what I realized while watching this
is that it didn't really matter about seeing more of her films (though I
will one of these days). No films are explored in depth - what is explored
is Ann Hui as a person, as a woman and as a director and it is wonderfully
well done. You really get a sense of who she is - much funnier than I would
have expected, insecure at times, concerned about getting too old to direct,
very tough on the set, not at all into material things or a large apartment
(it is very small), loves talking with her film friends, when she walks the
streets of Hong Kong, no one seems to have any idea who she is, obsessed
with film and someone who takes care of her very elderly Japanese mother
who she had issues with growing up. She seems to have great awareness
of who she is and who she isn't. One small tidbit she throws out is about
perhaps her only relationship in her life - she says when it ended her only
reaction was relief. A big sigh because now she could focus on making movies.
Her career as a director of films has spanned
over 40 years beginning with the New Wave in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
Her first film is The Secret which is brilliant (and on Blue Ray at the HKFA)
followed up by the supernatural The Spooky Bunch and two remarkably hard-hitting
films about immigrants coming to Hong Kong - The Story of Woo Viet and Boat
People (a subject she had also covered in her days at TVB). These were
all well reviewed. All these years she has stood out as non-commercial and
independent. A formidable thing for any director in Hong Kong and especially
a woman. Almost all the directors from the New Wave soon petered out. Their
films did not make money and if your films do not make money in Hong Kong,
you don't get many chances. The two exceptions are Ann Hui and Tsui Hark
- but Hark after his first three films - Butterfly Murders, We're Going to
Eat You and Dangerous Encounter - First Kind - all great films - made a hard
right into the world of commercial film with All the Wrong Clues and stayed
there. Hui has never really tried to be commercial though she admits that
she worries about the box office a great deal. Because with practically every
film she does, she has to go looking for investors for her next film and
if she had a flop - of which she has had many - she never knows if there
will be a next film. But as the title says she keeps rolling.
She had some periods when her films sunk
at the box office - the 90s were not kind to her and she thought she might
not be able to direct again. She won some awards but not many went to see
her films - perhaps for the same reason I have a hard time taking one up
- people don't generally go to the theater to be socked in the jaw with a
depressing film. She made an epic martial arts film which might surprise
people. She loved reading martial arts books growing up but The Romance of
Book and its sequel Sword and Princess Fragrance filmed in the Mainland were
bombs and not critically praised. Even a film with Michelle Yeoh titled Ah
Kam Stuntwoman did poorly. But it got better in the early 2000's with Visible
Secret with Shu Qi and July Rhapsody with a topnotch cast of Anita Mui, Jacky
Cheung and Karina Lam. And as I said, I have not seen any of her films since
then but she still gets funding and awards. She is honestly one of a kind.
There are other directors who make serious dramatic fare, but none have lasted
this long or made this many films.
The documentary itself is very good - it
just pulls you into her life through conversations with her, friends and
colleagues - easy going natural conversations - it often focuses on films
that have autobiographical elements that they wrap into the story. Her sense
of being an outsider and sympathizing with outsiders - perhaps because of
her Japanese mother which back in the 1940's was not exactly popular. It
is funny, she can be churlish which is funny as well, but she has a breakout
laugh that is infectious and often. As a side note - the clips they show
of her early films are pristine - Spooky Bunch, Song of the Exile, Starry
is the Night, the two martial arts films, My American Grandson - films that
I have never seen except in murky versions. I hope it means they may be available
at some point.
