Back in 2002, writer director Tony Ayers brought us the award-winning film Walking on Water. Now he's plumbed his childhood for the story that he says defined him. His mother was a glamorous nightclub singer who worked in the smoky bars of Hong Kong before meeting an Australian sailor and moving to Melbourne. But her dreams of a prosperous life didn't exactly take hold in 1970s suburbia. Depression set in and young Tony and his sister were forced to deal with some pretty heavy emotional drama. And that drama is the basis for The Home Song Stories.
The film stars acclaimed Chinese-born actress Joan Chen as Rose, a woman torn between her desire for celebrity and her duties as a mother.
The character of young Tony is called Tom and he's played by the very astute 11-year old Joel Lok.
Tom has to contend with a succession of so-called "uncles" including the kind-hearted sailor Bill (Steve Vidler) and the much younger kitchen-hand Joe (Qi Yuwu). He also has to put up with Bill's suspicious mother Norma, played to perfection by Kerry Walker. And when it all gets too much, he retreats into a comic fantasy world inspired by the martial arts movies of the Shaw Brothers.
The Home Song Stories is a strikingly beautiful and moving film that explores the difficulty of being different in a world defined by conformity.
Set against the brick and fibro walls of flat Melbourne suburbia, it's a story of isolation and a tragic culture clash — I can't forget the image of the silk cheong sams hanging on a hills hoist in the backyard.
In the end, though, it's a film about acceptance and forgiveness and the memory of someone who was perhaps too fragile for this harsh world.
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