Devotion concerns the devotion a housemaid, played by Ou-Yang
Sha-Fei, has towards her daughter, and marks the first time a HK
actress (Ou-Yang Sha-Fei) won Best Supporting Actress at an
international film festival. The film stars Kitty Ting Hao in two
roles, as well as Roy Chiao, and Zhang Yang in a rare role wherein
he atypically plays someone who is not a selfish, self-involved
git (see The Wild, Wild Rose and Sun, Moon and Star for cases in
point) but a fun guy and fine man. I admit to being shocked seeing
him in a positive role for once. The plot often seems fragmentary,
going off on many tangents, but by film's end, everything comes
together. Kitty Ting Hao proves to be almost as affecting as
Lucilla You Min was in Sun, Moon and Star, which I didn't expect,
but the roles have a bit in common, since they both have the women
playing poor country girls with braids. Several heartwrenching
scenes appear in this film, so you'll need handkerchiefs to view
this one. This is among the best Cathay films available on disc,
and it did much to change my perception of Kitty Ting Hao whom I
hadn't really liked in the Cathay film Between Tears and Laughter.