After This Our Exile (M18)
(Aaron Kwok/Charlie Young/ Gouw Ian Iskandar/117 minutes)
Auteur Patrick Tam’s first film in 17 years beautifully and lovingly evokes small-town Malaysia.
The idyllic backdrop, though, is the setting for a darker tale about the relationship between a ne’er-do-well father (Kwok) and his young son (Iskandar)after his wife (Young) leaves home.
It is hard to care when a father with no redeeming qualities loses everything.But this is a movie about the son as well and Tam ends the movie on a powerful note of redemption and hope, loss and love.
The movie won the Golden Horse award for Best Picture, while Kwok and nine-year-old Iskandar took home the acting awards.Kwok has certainly come a long way from his teeny-bopper music videos, doomed to eternal rotation in karaoke joints.
This bare-bones DVD gets an extra star for the Cantonese audio track.
(ST)