First of May

Directed by Lam Chi Yu

Mrs. Ho, a senile and distraught widow, lives by herself in a walk-up building. For more than half a century, Mrs. Ho has been living in her flat since she was married. But, after an accident, her legs went lame. Her son keeps persuading her to sell the flat and move into a building with lifts. She refuses and she wants to hold onto the flat, her only contact with her dead husband, where they used to do tap-dance together. Of course, they weren’t Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers but, the film makes touchingly clear, we need to listen to rhythm of their dance. More importantly, Mrs. Ho’s perseverance and strength recall the portrayal of another old woman – Ella Garth (Jo Van Fleet) in Elia Kazan’s masterpiece Wild River (1960).