Echoes of the Rainbow

I finally got to watch Echoes of the Rainbow (歲月神偷) and it's now officially one of my favorite Hong Kong films....I've been wanting to watch it since its release in February this year but then when it came to Singapore, it's dubbed in Mandarin and I waited till now cos watching in Mandarin's just not right to the Cantonese milieu and the wait was totally worth it.

It's written and directed by Hong Kong director Alex Law (who also made 秋天的童話, another of my favorites) and it talks of a family of 4 in the old Hong Kong through the eye of a shoemaker's son and the film features Sandra Ng and Simon Yam (both my favorites) and 2 other new commers...a very young boy named Buzz Chung (trust the Hongkie to gave a weird name like Buzz) and Aarif Lee (sounds kinda muslim) and they both performed brilliantly! As usual, the two silver screen veterans, Sandra and Simon, gave a heart felt performance and Buzz was exceptional, considering the fact that he's only 8 years old. And so did Aarif...it of course helps that he's super hot!!! Woot!

But it's definitely one tear jerker! Ah Meow and I both teared but the whole film has this nice nostalgic innocence of the old Hong Kong when the people were poor and things were simple. I find the simplicity the winning formula where every interactions between people (ie all the characters in there) were sincere - the kind of genuine sincerity that's hard to find in today's society. Despite its tendency to make people finish all their tissue paper (to soak up the tears), it's very well-balanced by the playful voice of the 8-year-old son, making it one of those bittersweet movies that makes you smile from the heart while bawling your eyes out. It's a definite must-watch! It received roaring success and it won the Best Screenplay in HK's film award. Simon Yam won Best Actor and Aarif Lee clinched the Best Newcomer. Not to mention it took home the Crystal Bear in Best Film in the Children's Jury in Berlin's International Film Festival! Kudos to Alex Law! And I'm gonna get it in DVD for sure!!!