A cleaner and his young neighbor form an unusual bond in The Narrow RoadThe Edinburgh International Film Festival premieres a drama set in Hong Kong, called ‘The World of Lam Sum’. Lam Sum, director, paints vividly the daily life of low-paid workers in the city by skillfully incorporating elements from the Covid pandemic that struck just before filming began.
Chak is played in the movie by Louis Cheung. Chak works hard and runs a small but effective cleaning company that services local businesses as well as homes. Chak is begged by Candy, his neighbor (Angela Yuen), to find a job. Candy has seven-year-old daughters and is struggling to provide for them.
While hardly a natural at cleaning — which is teased for gentle comedy value — Candy assists Chak just enough to keep the gig, though it helps that she has an incredibly cute daughter (if there is such a thing as a Manic Pixie Dream Kid, this is it). The three gradually develop a friendship that verges on codependency, but Candy’s moral compass is a frequent challenge for Chak, even if it’s borne out of desperation.
Candy, as her name implies, is bright and colorful. She wears a variety of likely shoplifted clothes. She’s impulsive, funny, and more like her kid’s irresponsible best friend than her mother: the child smears her face in stolen lipstick while left home alone.
Candy is well enough drawn not to fall into the Manic Pixie trap, and she’s not particularly sexualized, either, though there’s a sense that she and Chak are teetering on the edge of a potential romance. The will-they-won’t-they question feels a little dragged out during the final sequences, but it’s an engaging set up, made more dramatic by a subplot involving a shortage of detergent during the crisis.
Poignant pandemic images underline the difficulties of these characters, and that of Chak’s mother, who is isolating in her small flat, hanging flimsy disposable masks up to dry in her kitchen. While there’s a lightness to most of these scenes, there’s one with no room for levity that leaves an indelible impact. This is what makes this scene so special. The Narrow RoadThis is a fascinating insight into Hong Kong lockdown life with great performances and an authentic atmosphere.