A Moment of Romance
Reviewed by YTSL
What would be the given odds, I wonder, of a
movie for which Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Johnnie To are credited producers
of some kind or other being a serious romantic drama, even if it's one that
does involve some triad action? This especially when one realizes that
the Director Guild's film in mind is helmed by Benny Chan (whose best-known
work is probably that entitled "Big Bullet"). Yet that is precisely
what the 1990 offering whose Chinese title translates as "If Heaven Has Love"
turned out to successfully be -- so much so, in fact, that it spawned two
in-name-only "sequels" which also boast appearances by this offering's female
lead.
A MOMENT OF ROMANCE starts off in earnest with
the meeting of a rich girl and a man who comes from the wrong side of town
by way of his taking her hostage to aid in his escaping from the clutches
of the police after the robbing of a jewelry business. At first, I
greeted with skepticism the plot development which involved the admittedly
naive-looking as well as skittish-acting lass becoming enamored with the rough
diamond who not only decided to spare her life (against the orders of other
gang members) but actually went out of his way to ensure her safe return
to her very nice looking home. However, the revelation a little later
on that Wu Chien-Lien's hitherto lonesome character was but seventeen years
old actually did explain and help a great deal (as did the acting of the
actress who was very impressively making her movie debut here). So
did the persuasive portrayal of a honorable and complex triad man by Andy
Lau; along with amusing and illuminating expository scenes featuring Jo Jo
and Wah Dee (the character names assigned to those played by Wu and Lau respectively)
that allowed the audience to see the gradual development of the attraction
between the two very different individuals (N.B. I particularly liked
those which took place in a cheap rented room early in their relationship).
Seemingly inevitably, A MOMENT OF ROMANCE's heartrending love story gets
complicated by triad politics of the kind that culminates in chopper-waving
chases and knife-wielding fights. Some time is also devoted to detailing
the male protagonist's friendship with a lower-level individual which is
somewhat reminiscent of that between the characters played by Andy Lau and
Jackie Cheung in Wong Kar Wai's "As Tears Go By" (which came out two years
before -- and IMHO is bettered by -- Benny Chan's directorial debut).
Somewhat surprisingly though, I thought that the gangland interactions actually
endowed the proceedings with the kind of tension that rivets rather than
irritates, and found that while Ng Man Tat was once more essaying a gibbering
character, this one -- whose portrayal won him a Best Supporting Actor honor
at the Hong Kong Film Awards -- actually felt three-dimensional and thereby
increased the film's already high humanity quotient.
IMHO, this stylistic rough and emotionally raw work is an extremely well
made work in so many ways. To be sure, its basic "opposites attract"
story would win no prizes for originality, and could even be pretty accurately
described as downright generic. However, this effort manages to qualitatively
rise above other similarly themed offerings (including "The Adventurers";
the 1995 Ringo Lam effort which had Andy Lau once more playing a character
who takes Wu Chien-Lien's hostage, then falls in love with her) by way of
the care taken in doing such as: Detailing -- while also personalizing
-- the main duo's different backgrounds and social milieu (the inclusion
of scenes with their poles-apart-in-style-and-attitude parental figures was
a particularly fine touch) as well as feelings for each other; and weaving
together different aspects of the film so that the (re)viewer feels at the
end of A MOMENT OF ROMANCE that all loose ends have actually been accounted
for and tied up.
Spoiler alert: This is not to say though that I do not have any regrets
about the way the story got resolved. While I won't go into any details,
I will issue the warning that one should NEVER -- unless one has a heart
of steel; in which case, why bother to watch these movies at all?! -- ever
consider a double feature involving A MOMENT OF ROMANCE and Tsui Hark's "The
Lovers" (Forget about weeping buckets. I felt suicidal for a while
there!). Still, I guess it can be said to be a tribute to the (people
involved in this) production that over the course of a scant ninety minutes
or so, they actually got usually unrepentantly unromantic me to care so much
for the two protagonists and "feel free to be naive again" (as the movie's
lovers were -- and the audience is -- urged to momentarily be).
My rating for the film: 8.5