QUIET CONTEMPLATION AND "A SIMPLE LIFE"

Here once again, we are able to observe the clear difference of the Asian point of view to the Western. In this film we have a quiet, understated, yet beautiful story, told in a quiet, understated and beautiful way. Some might say that there is “no story here”, but one must remember that it is the little things that happen in everyday life that make that big old life of ours worth living, heck, our lives are made up of little things anyway… This is why I quite agree that they should be honored. Ah Tao is an “amah” a nanny and servant. She has been working with the same family for 60 years, she has helped bring up several generations of the same family and thus she is almost part of the family now. The only thing is of course that most of her family has moved from Hong Kong to the United States. She keeps up the family home and looks after Roger who is now a successful television producer. And then one day, old age comes to her as it does to us all and she has a stroke. She lets the family knows that she wants to retire and be placed in an old people’s home. The family respects her decision and Roger, of whom she has taken care for almost all his life, decides to foot the bill. This in itself is a nice gesture but it is only the beginning of a different story. As Ah ?? does her best to adapt to her new surroundings – and all is not as rosy as she may have first imagined – a new relationship has started up between her and Roger. Because although he has the option of leaving her there and getting on with his life, he decides that now the old and faithful servant who was a second mother to him is poorly, it is time for the roles to be reversed and for him to look after her… Like I said, there is no grand story to this film. Or at least it looks as if there isn’t. Yet again, when you think about it, in our days of fast-living and self-serving, acts of kindness and looking out for one another is actually big news. It is also interesting to consider the whole “parental” relationship through this lens. In the film it is clear that Roger’s relationship with his mother is a pretty typical one where they love each other dearly but do not know each other that well and in fact Roger begins to get quite annoyed by the little things she does. When Ah Tao moves out however, he is lost. Firstly because of very basic things, he doesn’t know how to work the washing machine or the oven. But then it is her benign presence, hovering over him, scolding him and keeping him company that he begins to miss. Ah Tao may not be his biological mother, but she has mothered him in every other sense of the word, more so probably than his own mother did – it is quite obvious that the family is well off. Sade bir hayat is a quiet, placid, contemplative film whose slow, sedate pace allows for a lot of rumination on what are in reality complex emotions that are overlooked in day to day life. Well worth taking time out of your busy schedule to think about it.