An ‘Affair’ to Remember
Hey! Some happy MIRROR news: Keung To and Jer Lau make pretty good movie stars in Kearen Pang’s melodic and melancholy sophomore film.
mama’s Affair
Director: Kearen Pang • Writer: Kearen Pang
Starring: Teresa Mo, Keung To, Jer Lau, Kaki Sham, Wan Yeung-ming, Donald Tong, Law Wing-cheong, Tang Lai-ying, CY, Tsang Lok-yung, Gigi Cheung, Vincnet Kok, Schumann Lee
Hong Kong • 2hrs 6mins
Opens Hong Kong August 11 • I
Grade: B
Contrary to what some of the lizard-brained among us may think (okay, me), Mama’s Affair | 阿媽有咗第二個 is not about a middle-aged woman finding a second shot at romance with a more thrilling, much younger man. No, it is not the second coming of White Palace, or How Stella Got Her Groove Back, or The Forty-Year-Old-Version, or Harold and Maude. But Kearen Pang Sau-wai’s follow-up to her brilliantly triggering debut 29+1 (which spoke to any woman who’s ever been mansplained to at work or had to endure endless “You’re not getting any younger” barbs) is an amazing balancing act. The affair of the title, literally “mama’s second one,” is not a lover; it’s a surrogate son who is the catalyst for Mama’s career rejuvenation just as her marriage is collapsing. It also delivers her actual son’s rude awakening with regards to how much he’s taken her for granted, and how little he knows about her. It’s an old story: the struggle for a woman to “have it all” and not be made to feel guilty for being driven, or dropping the ball on the home front from time to time. And a bonus, it’s got two MIRRORs making their film debuts. And you know what? They’re pretty good.
The way no chachaanteng waiter looked ever
The eternally cool Teresa Mo Sun-kwan stars as Yu Mei-fung, a legendary super-manager who’s got framed photos of her with Leo Ku and Lai Ming on her mantle. Years ago, she tells us to camera (reminiscent of Chrissy Chau throwing shade about her morning make-up routine and her garbage work-life balance in 29+1), she gave up her high-powered music industry career to make sure she got pregnant, stayed that way, and had a family. The son she had was Jonathan (MIRROR’s Jer Lau Ying-ting), an academic student at an elite high school who’s angling to go off to university in the UK. Little does Jonathan know it, but Mei-fung and his father, Yan (Wan Yeung-Ming), have agreed to a divorce after 21 years. Slightly restless and now without an identity as a “housewife,” Mei-fung decides to go back to work, first as a music educator before falling back into old habits. Her nose for talent leads her to the local cha chaan teng waiter/delivery guy Fong-ching (Keung To, the other MIRROR), an easy going kid with a grim family history that Mei-fung guides to stardom. The time and energy she heaps on Fong-ching force Jonathan to recognise her value as his mother.
It must be said: Mama’s Affair could easily have been about a professor who takes a scholarship student under wing. Or a chef and sous chef, a director and actor. Any combination would have absorbed the themes. But if you have MIRROR in your movie, they had best get singing. The soundtrack is loaded up with Cantopop, and more than a handful of scenes look more like music videos than a film. It’s disingenuous to claim surprise at all the music; it’s like saying a Netflix movie was “okay.” Duh.
That look isn’t what you think
But this is a Pang film first, and though she indulges the music from time to time (random karaoke anyone?) Pang maintains a firm grasp on the tension at the heart of the story, which is Mei-fung’s attempt to re-centre herself after finding her life turned upside down. Pang, a playwright by trade, is a character-first artist, so she makes room for Jonathan’s irrational bitterness, Fong-ching’s thirst for a mother-son relationship, and Mei-fung’s quiet inner conflicts as much as she does for musical interludes. She pulls solid first-time performances from Lau and Keung, but Pang’s shown growth as a filmmaker. She knows when to hold a shot (an encounter between Fong-ching and his estranged father is as tense at it gets, you can see Mei-fung acknowledge her marriage is over before she speaks), when to go hand-held, and when to let distances speak for themselves. Lau might have the stronger vocal range, and Keung has an easy, undeniable screen presence that’s hard not be charmed by, but it’s Mo’s usual, effortless relatability as Mei-fung that holds it all together. The story ends on a bittersweet note, with everyone kinda, sorta happy, with clearer views on reality than when they started. It’s not all drama all the time: Fong-ching and his friends’ excitement over his climbing YouTube hits is simply fun, and he and Jonathan’s “I was a waiter,” ‘I can tell,” exchange has the wry delivery of old pros. Cap it off with a string of cameos and small parts by Vincent Kok, Kaki Sham, Gigi Cheung, CY, Tang Lai-ying and a bevy of others and you have a Hong Kong entertainment to rival Chilli Laugh Story. With two MIRRORs instead of one. — DEK