All Shall Be Well” gives a rather harsh picture. It is a well planned, deftly handled and socially relevant film – about deep insults, inequality and homosexuality.
Ray Yeung is the one who wrote and directed the film as well whiles it revolves around the fleeting glimpse of love caused by autumn seen from Angie (Patra Au) and Pat (Lin-Lin Li). The same two women have been in a domestic arrangement for over thirty years – a typical day in their life includes walks, going to buy groceries, or visiting a flower shop run by another lesbian couple. The more perfect pair would be, Angie, a demure woman, and Pat, an energetic one. The family of Pat, those who are coming to visit the couple’s home for the Mid-Autumn Festival are integral to the health of the couple.
The equilibrium that Pat established with him is upset, however, when her death occurs unexpectedly and without making a will. She does not even have the consolation in knowing that she and Pat had gotten married. We all have seen a fair amount of ugly family fights to be able to guess what the future holds.
Thank God, Yeung knows that it’s better not to let one’s expectations build up anywhere too fast. The antagonism from Angie’s relatives doesn’t come in one big speech. It happens instead in a thousand little dismissals. Yang’s brother Tai-Bo takes on the role Kenneth’s uncle did and gets appointed as the executor of the estate while his wife (Siu Ying Hui) refers to Angie as Pat’s ‘best friend.’ They also care for her large apartment because bearing with their run down place has become intolerable. On the other hand, Angie’s nephew Victor (Chung-Hang Leung) is also interested in the apartment as he is supporting his girlfriend, but he has has no job. At the same time, his sister Fanny (Fish Liew) is fed up with the place especially, with her kids and husband residing over an Indian theoretical restaurant (you can hear her hatred of the places odor).
In a lesser filmmaker’s hands, these people would simply be nasty and easy to hate villains. But this is where Yeung is smart – he deals you one where you expect a shot. While Pat and Angie were busy cashing out as factory owners, Shing and Mei were facing losses after losses in their restaurant.
Under such conditions, the former had to take a nighttime job kid parking while the latter had to do hotel room cleaning. Yeung background their struggle depicts struggles of victory and Fanny in the current housing crisis in Hong Kong where the movie is set, this disparages many into deplorable states and situations with no hope of changing. One cannot help but notice, for instance, that Victor is shown a renatal apartment which borders on being a closet, another one shows Fanny’s husband covering a rat hole with a sign saying ‘Please Do Not Enter.’ There’s a certain typology of their character files within those circumstances – what narratives provide some clarity about their viciousness towards Anges and how it developed.
Sure, those systemic problems do not excuse them from their unpleasantness. I did not even see sweeping conclusions towards such. There is this almost unforgivable act of ongoing and continuous Angis erasure by poor excuse the family. It does not take much time for them to easily resort to the law, which one can imagine does not extend protection to gay marriage, much more so son Pat and daughter Angie who legally needed to travel to marry to lawfully be able to live, discriminate and even have a reminiscence of Angie.
Angie is psychologically tortured, and her torment comes from being very lonely. The lens does the same.
While some may go in for the close-ups and try to wring every last hint of emotion from the actor, Yeung, and, for that matter, his director of photography Ming-Kai Leung lets the camera remain far from Angie’s face during most of the movie. This alienation, we feel, is also enhanced by the low key lighting and the use of dull shades. Au is a great actress too, who does not suffer from a steadfast approach, relying on a tear or a grimace to bridge the character’s suffering and the watchers. What she explains is a very much movement oriented and emotionally engaged performance. With each and every little slap from members of her extended family, she folds herself lower. She is so slumped, in body as well as in spirit that one would almost want to see a fight to get out from inside her skin.
This film is so restrained that it is frustrating to observe it take such a clichéd route to make Angie re-ignite her fight. The small change allows Angie to bask in lov e and the memory of people which, i agree, is an important feeling to make the audience at the end. There is, after all, the fact that Au has so much emotionality that could have been wrapped in the story arc’s emotional core that this one has far too much of.
That small embarrassment does not erase a lot, if at all, about the brilliant aspects of “All Shall Be Well.” This is a warm and engaging picture that has its own share of of complexities and contemplations that almost caresses the viewer and says “don’t worry, this is not permanent, it too shall pass.”
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