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film phlegm

A sad family drama based on the director's life

Under discussion:

Had the opportunity to see this at the San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival.  It probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but a friend who is a big Joan Chen fan really wanted to see it and since I didn't get to see any other films, I went.

It's a story about the Tony Ayre's (the director) life in Australia (and Hong Kong) growing up with a mother who moved from man to man, place to place, dragging her children along with her.  She's a beautiful woman who gets men to fall in love with her, but depends on them for her and her childrens' income and well-being.  This dependency ultimately leads these men to leave her driving her into a state of alcoholism, chronic depression, and attempted suicide leaving her 10ish year old son and 12ish year old daughter to deal with her self-absorbed nonsense.

The film takes almost directly from Ayres' life and from what I understood, followed it very closely.  In fact, he and his sister make an appearance at the end of the film.  It's a sad, sad story and I feel like it's been told so many times before, but the acting was excellent, the music was wonderful, and the film was well made in general.  Sometimes a film can be a therapeutic release for an artist, and I give Tony Ayres four stars for telling his story.

posted on Monday, March 24, 2008 7:04 PM by dunedonkey


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