User Reviews

(The names in the film are slightly different then in the subtitles and on the back of the VCD and the IMDb list- I'm fudging it for the purposes of illustration) Tai Chi moves in with his friend in an apartment building. The friend is friends with Lok To, a woman who is in love with Gala, who is away in Paris and who has been sending Lok To letters. Tai Chi finds 99 letters from Gala to Lok To chronicling their relationship in his friend apartment and reads them becoming well versed in the relation ship and determined to get the two lovers together. Toward that end Tai Chi helps Lok To open a bakery. However when Gala finally returns to Hong Kong he brings along another woman...also complicating matters is the fact that Tai Chi has fallen for Lok To.

Films like this are the reason I suffer the discount bins in Chinatown, they are small little surprises that I never would have stumbled upon had I not taken a chance for a buck.

This is a charming romance with real characters and nary a real villain in site. Normally in films like this you can't understand why the love interest likes the beau she will eventually leave, usually he's boorish and prigish from the start and you can't see why they ever were together in the first place, thats not the case here. You understand why Lok To loves Gala and why they still have feelings. You also understand how they drifted apart.

The characters are all real people with a genuine affection for each other. They all have their quirks (Tai Chi most of all but he is a man inside his head and his quirks are real) but nothing over powering, they are very much like the people you know. Its so nice that no one is shrill and screaming.

Its also great that the story unfolds in its own way in its own time. Nothing seemed to be to be fake or forced with nary a "cute" meet style scene anywhere to be found. (Okay the cellphone on the bridge bit kind of is but it works in context where its placed.) I like that it seems like we are watching clips from the lives of these people and not a made up romance tale.

Don't get me wrong this isn't a perfect film, it meanders a bit and some bits don't quite work as well as others, but its still a solid little film thats not your typical piece of romance (especuially if you watch Hollywood fodder). It gets points for just being itself and not a copy of a copy of a cliché.

Will I look to replace the VCD with a DVD? probably not(addendum-yes I have replaced the VCD with a DVD). To be honest I don't know if I'll watch it again. HOWEVER that doesn't mean its not going to be a movie I'll mention and recommend to anyone I think will listen or to anyone who I think will have a shot at running down a copy.

(The problem with searching out films that are off the beaten path is you very often find things that are next to impossible to share because no one can find copies for themselves)