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Starring
:
Sun
Yueh
Liu
Juel Chi
Ng
Siu Kong
Jiang
Shia
Lee
Li Qun
Producer
:
Karl
Maka
Dean
Shek
Director
:
Yu
Kang Ping
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PAPA,
CAN YOU HEAR ME SING? (1983)
Reviewed
by Andrew Saroch
Uncle
Dumb (Sun Yueh) is the mute resident of a Taiwanese shanty
town who scrapes together a living by collecting the empty
glass bottles he finds on the streets. One evening he happens
upon a baby girl wrapped in a blanket with a note attached
pleading with whoever finds her to look after her. Despite
barely being able to look after himself, Uncle Dumb takes the
baby back and names her Ah Mei, resolving to bring her up as
best he can. Even though his decision causes his girlfriend to
leave, Uncle Dumb raises Ah Mei and helps her in later life
with her aspirations to be a singer. Ah Mei initially finds
modest success in singing in small bars, but when she is
finally discovered great things are predicted for her. Sadly
the price of fame is her public rejection of her humble
upbringing, a reluctant denunciation prompted by her new manager,
that shatters Uncle Dumb.
'Papa,
Can You Hear Me Sing?' is an exercise in how to pummel your
characters into submission by subjecting them to all manner of
personal misery and tragedy. Like a Hong Kong version of the
overwrought Nigerian and Ghanaian melodramas screened everyday
on U.K. satellite television, 'Papa Can You Hear Me Sing?'
takes sadistic glee in putting very likeable characters
through great hardships while giving them very little time to
breathe. The first thirty minutes, in particular, features a
relentless catalogue of privation that includes a drowning, a
fire that destroys a great portion of the town and the
poignant death of a background character. The onslaught of
pessimism makes Thomas Hardy look like Enid Blyton.
When
the narrative moves onto its main focal point - the rags to
riches story of Ah Mei - it stumbles upon another problem. As
the relationship between adoptive father and daughter had been
skirted over in favour of drama earlier in the film, it is
hard to believe in the relationship later on. The talents of
the two performers can only do so much to elicit the much
needed bond between the two characters; director Yu Kang
Ping's jump from the infant Ah Mei to the adult one is a
severe oversight that renders many later moments of poignancy
redundant. Had we been able to see the struggles the pair had
to go through together during Ah Mei's formative years, the
closing melodrama would no doubt have attained a greater
impact.
There's
no doubt that much is wrong with 'Papa, Can You Hear Me
Sing?', but there's also an undeniable power of never quite
knowing how the narrative will turn out. In a Hollywood
production of a similar nature, the audience would be properly
braced for the inevitable reconciliation and heart-felt
pathos. Asian films are far less easy to predict and one is
never entirely sure how Yu Kang Ping's work will turn out.
There are also a few suitably haunting scenes of misery,
moments that may be cynically packaged, but have the Asian
grit that enables them to have an air of reality. Much of this
is thanks to a fine turn by Sun Yueh who gives his character
the needed dignity that ensures he is never just an object of
pity. With a performance of his calibre in its corner, 'Papa,
Can You Hear Me Sing?' is not a waste of time, just a
potentially potent piece of film-making undone by its many
short-comings.
Rating:
 
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