-(M18 ) Out in Cinemas on 7 December 2006-
" Directed by Patrick Tam, who is renowned for his visionary editing and beautifully shot films like The Days of Being Wild, edits of scenes are tight and the choice of filming in Malaysian towns provides the perfect film setting for the poor family in the story."Danny Er
4 Dec 2006After This Our Exile arrives on our shores with much expectation.
Having garnered seven nominations at the recent Golden Horse awards and winning coveted accolades like the Best Actor award, Best Supporting Actor award and even Best Feature Film award, audiences are expecting some credible acting and story plot from this film.
The film tells of a man (Aaron Kwok), who once had everything; money, friends and an understanding wife (Charlie Young), who had to help pay for his debts due to his addictive gambling. After years of tolerating his habit and with a prospective suitor at her side, she decides to leave him and their doting young son much to his fury.
It is not a very creative story plot to come up with, but was directed and especially edited well to hide that fact.
Given the languid plot, it would have been really easy for this film to be a drag and an insipid one, instead it comes across as tolerable and focuses much on creating a melodrama that plays off on the actors. Look out for teary scenes shared by father and son as they fight for survival and resort to theft for a living.
Directed by Patrick Tam, who is renowned for his visionary editing and beautifully shot films like The Days of Being Wild, edits of scenes are tight and the choice of filming in Malaysian towns provides the perfect film setting for the poor family in the story. However, it does come across as a little awkward for audiences like me though who are more used to the two leading stars in the affluent and sleek HongKong productions.
Areas that the director can improve on will definitely be in coming up with a better and more adventurous story to play with. Kelly Lin's prostitute character whom the male protagonist befriends at the run-down hotel in the film could be further explored.
However, it must be noted that the final cut actually left out many scenes of the original; not sure on our part if any of those did contain the prostitute.
It is a good film nonetheless albeit some oversight.
