Summer Snow

Summer Snow starts out looking like a domestic comedy centred on a working woman’s problems with her father-in-law. May Sun is office manager for a company trading in Made-in-China toilet rolls and risks being replaced by a computer; her husband is a nerdy driving-test examiner and they have an incipiently rebellious teenage son. May has never got on with her husband’s father, and dreads having to look after him when his wife dies. Her worst fears are exceeded when his behaviour becomes dangerously eccentric, and Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed. Hui treats the issue of senility with respect and compassion, but centres the film on May’s struggle to cope. As a result, what could easily have been played as tearful social-issue drama is actually a charming comedy – and all the more moving for it. Ms. Siao’s performance as May Sun is one of her finest ever. Tony Rayns