Love Amoeba Style



Director: Shu Kei
Year: 1997
Rating: 6.5


Ah, the complications of young love and friendships. The producer – Joe Ma – has mined this territory a few times in such films as L- O–V-E Love, Feel 100%, Over the Rainbow and others and is quite adept at putting together a group of young attractive characters with good chemistry.


Here the story focuses around a household of three males and a female. All have been friends for years. There is Julian Cheung who has a harridan for a girlfriend (Karen Tong). She calls him up every morning to make sure he is wearing the appropriate clothes. As his friends keep telling him – “dump her!” but he sort of likes being mothered. Andy Hui is a shoe salesman and a lover – what would Al Bundy think of that! The third guy is Eric Kot who does his typical nerdy character, but in a more sedate manner than usual and he is quite endearing for a change. Over these three Amanda Lee is the den mother.


All end up losing their jobs at the same time and decide to buy a bar. I should go into this business. No one seems to work too hard and they take off whenever the mood strikes them. Some love complications enter their lives. Andy meets Hsu Chi who is like a Taiwanese breeze blowing through town and he wants to give up his playboy ways. Julian bumps into Annie Wu who shares his passion for movies and the "Chinese Hero" comic book, but he still feels something for the anchor around his neck. Eric gets a giggly blind date (Angie Cheung) over the Internet. The scene of their meeting is very sweet. She wants him to squeeze her pimples. 


In fact, this film is fairly sweet. It is full of the sort of situations that enter all of our lives. There is no great drama here. The charm of the film is that the characters all feel very real and their interplay with one another is very natural and enjoyable. My favorite scene besides the blind date is when Andy is between the sheets with Hsu and in her passion she calls out not just one other name, but a whole litany of ex-lovers. So he decides to play that game as well and starts calling out every name he can think of ending with Tung Chee Hwa, the President of HK! The focus of the film is on the men and their house mother with Hsu Chi and Annie Wu just drifting in and out.