Show Me Your Love (2016)

"Happiness is always remembered"

Show Me Your Love showed how poor communication and even poorer choices can lead to years of unnecessary unhappiness and resentment.

As a child, Nin and his mom move from Hong Kong into her father’s house in Selangor, Malaysia. Sze Nga works long hours at odd jobs trying to pay off debt. One day she leaves for work abroad, giving Nin to her sister, and doesn’t return for 10 years. Upon her return, Nin is readying for university in Hong Kong. This time he is the one who leaves without a goodbye or forwarding address. Years later, married and with a child, Nin is told his aunt has died. His mother who has become a stranger and who is in deteriorating health becomes his unwanted responsibility. Mother and son struggle to bridge the chasm of misunderstandings lying between them.

The strength of this film lies in the performances. Pau Hei Ching was given a role that older actresses salivate over. Sze Nga was a complicated character with a wide range of emotions, all of which Pau covered admirably. Raymond Wong kept Nin’s emotions tucked close to his chest like the perfect hole card while holding a royal flush. All of the supporting characters added to the story without detracting from it. I honestly thought I was going to hate Nin’s wife after her opening scene but she ended up coming through for Nin and her mother-in-law like a real trooper. The biggest faux pas was Sze Nga’s return after 10 years but looking 34 years older as they swapped out the actresses too soon. Michelle Wai should have had those crucial and painful reunion scenes.

*****Depending on your idea of spoilers, this paragraph might hold one. Skip to the next paragraph if you are super sensitive to any plot elements. *****
My problem with this film was the basic premise. Sze Nga left her son to be raised by her sister which crushed him. The film implied there was very little, if any, communication between mother and son through the years, even after she returned. Did they not have mail service where she was working? No postmen in Malaysia or Hong Kong? Nin felt abandoned and deeply hurt and rightly so. It was only at the point of being too late he came to understand her behavior. Her cruel disappearance was all in service of fabricating a false memory of his father—who in reality was a deadbeat dad who had buried his family in debt. Her decision cost her time with her precious son. Losing his beloved mother for the majority of his childhood and adult life hurt Nin far worse than finding out his father was a jerk. Dude never showed up or contacted him once, pretty obvious he was not worth all this effort.

Show Me Your Love pulled all the strings available to manipulate tearful responses from the audience. None of the overtly sentimental tropes worked on me. My heart was broken for Nin who had been a happy child until he lost both parents for all practical purposes. Sze Nga’s actions deprived her of seeing her son marry, hold her newborn grandchild, and revel in her son’s adoration of her. Words matter, words children need to hear-often. The synopsis says that mother and son patched up their differences, a broken heart can be mended but the cracks, especially those created by regret, will always show and be felt. To quote an old saying, "Time wasted, is time lost, never to be regained."


23 August 2025
Trigger: Noble idiocy

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