The plight of Hong Kong's McRefugees receives unabashedly melodramatic treatment in this humane yet relentlessly bleak movie. Ironically, in a year that has seen the film's theatrical release repeatedly postponed by the coronavirus pandemic, the lives of those homeless people who are used to sleeping at night in 24-hour McDonald's joints have become even more of a nightmare.
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The feature-film debut of long-time assistant director Wong Hing-fan is clearly pitched as another showcase for the acting of Aaron Kwok Fu-shing, the Canto-pop star playing a former investment expert who has fallen on hard times. But it is the ensemble cast who are memorable and who will win audiences' hearts.
Kwok plays Bowen, the de facto spiritual leader of a small group who spend their nights in a fast-food restaurant. Too ashamed to reunite with his mother (Nina Paw Hee-ching) and sister (Kathy Wu Jiaxing) since the prison spell that preceded his homelessness, Bowen appears content with life as a vagabond.
It must feel a little like redemption, then, that he also gets to use his street smarts to help out his fellow McRefugees: from a runaway teenager (Zeno Koo Ting-hin) to a talkative caricature artist (Cheung Tat-ming), a single mother in heavy debt (Cya Liu Yase), and an elderly widower who keeps denying his wife's passing (Alex Man Chi-leung).
A story of broken dreams and unfulfilled promises, the screenplay by Ja Poon ( A Beautiful Moment ) rarely misses an opportunity to pile on the misery. A would-be romance between Bowen and Jane (Miriam Yeung Chin-wah), a lounge singer who has carried a torch for him for years, never materialises, reflecting the film's austerity.
While Cheung took the limelight with his win at the Hong Kong Film Awards, I'm Livin' It is a true team effort; under Wong's measured direction, almost every actors leaves an impression. Sentimental, yet realistic for the most part, this film casts a rare spotlight on the Hong Kong underclass, one that hopefully will inspire positive action in their favour.
Source: MSN
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