'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.

Yu Kang Ping (Spooky Kookies) logs here perhaps one of Cinema City's greatest underrated treasures from the early 80s, proving that the names Karl Maka and Dean Shek on a producing level was a force to be reckoned with. Set in Taiwan, Raymond Wong and his writers offers up a touching tragedy about broken humans and their relationships. Suen Yuet's mute character finds his way of mending what he's lost through Ah Ming and the fact that he's not disabled in child upbringing makes Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing quickly take on touching, uplifting proportions.

I say quickly because director Yu really comes out flying like a bat out of hell with his story developments and that is a choice that can make absolutely no sense at times and be very welcome if done right. Yu ends up in the latter camp and seems very confident in weaving in the past and ongoing development within a relatively short narrative. With a realistic touch to his directing and portrayal of the closely knit village community, he once again proves why it's Asian filmmakers that again and again can take seemingly sappy and old character material and inject the right amount of heart and warmth into it.

But Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing is not afraid dish out punishment and Yu Kang Ping takes the mended relationships apart via a crucial end to one of the reels, leading to an equal harsh social commentary as the village land is going to be redeveloped and tragic love story between father and daughter to dominate the latter half of the film. While shot in 1982, Yu's tale of how good people end up stepping on toes in favour of success rings eerily true today and I say good because Raymond Wong and company never portrays anyone of the main characters in a bad light thankfully. It sounds harsh to blame life, its inhabitants and circumstances but it definitely is the answer Yu is preaching here. Ah Mei is allowed her success by her father but it's soon the powers of the entertainment circle that creates the dangerous cracks in a relationship so dear to the two of them. It makes the viewing awfully hard to take at times and the tragic proportions are not just a little severe yet rings true to how random life can be. It's not cynical for the sake of being cynical, Wong's script is very assured in avoiding that criticism.

It's high gear and also high melodrama for the most part but since director Yu proves adept not only at injecting depth into his high pace, there is a set, well-done character development that almost always warrants more hysterical drama at hand here also. However there exist restraints and the centre of the film, Suen Yuet's character, brings in the subtleties that raises the film to a level it aims at. Not given any dialogue obviously, Suen may not seem like it but is an extremely expressive veteran actor. His old, resigned face speaks volumes for any mood he's given and it's a a mystery why he wasn't even nominated that year for this dramatic performance when the likes of Richard Ng and Sammo Hung was for their comedic acts. The movie shows that life isn't fair and yea, that ended up being the case at the Hong Kong Film Awards that year even though another crucial aspect of Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing, music, ended up taking home prizes.

Ng Siu Gong is also saddled with a very difficult and increasingly decreased role as time goes by as she must be in her teenage version an pitch perfect loveable image of innocence that is robbed of that when success comes around. She and Suen Yet strike up wonderful chemistry and feels connected as they should even when not on screen together.

Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing is a wonderful, although downbeat discovery from the vaults of Cinema City (that brought you A Better Tomorrow and Aces Go Places). Yu Kang Ping's spot on touches in portraying a Taiwan reality where relationships are easily mended and broken in a heartbeat shows a director that probably deserved a longer career but even though the film is an example of a once in a lifetime peak, it's quite a felt peak.