Strictly average movie

An action-packed slog

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

I have just finished watching it. The emotions came out from deep down in my heart, and I couldn't control myself to stop crying. This is the film of love, reality and dream. It has nothing to do politically with HongKong before or after 1997. It shows the story of two young people who think they are young enough to not choose and avoid love as the dream of life, instead, they pretend to make their 'materialised dreams' come true. However, after their dreams do come true, they are not satisfied. When they turn over their faces, and realise that having each other is the dream. This is a soft and gentle film that in some way affect your heart deep down inside. The struggle the characters experienced are somehow showing the contradictions that all the immigrants would encounter. Those two 'immigrants' from mainland of China into HongKong have the reluctance of choosing between 'dream' or 'love', just like all the foreigners live in a country would have confused with and took the wrong decision. It is difficult to settle into one culture, when meet the people from your hometown, you feel like as if they are closer to you than your family. From the fantastic performance from both two actors, the whole structure of the film is satisfying, and the pace of unwrapping the storyline is as exciting and surprising as the Christmas presents. The love in the film is somehow very 'pure' and 'simple' from the determination and patience that took them years to find each other. Finally, there is only one thing to say: Among the sea of people, 'yuan'--the invisible and chosen force that connect you with the others in a particular way is unchangeable and if you believe it, you will never be able to miss 'the one' for you, no matter what happens, and where you will b. Just ask yourself-- billions of people in the world, why do I meet you not someone else?

you will feel very good when you see an old "friend" who had special experience with you and made deep impression on you quite by chance in a place where far from your story happened place after a long time... [my pooooooooooor english, hope you could understand, cause we love this movie!!! THE BEST MOVE ABOUT EMOTION!!!]

First, let me agree whole-heartedly with all the coments posted here (so far): this is a great film, really touching, and fun to watch...a "chick flick" with brains? (So to speak!) Ultimately, it's also a great window onto Chinese culture and how crass and materialistic it can be, contrary to some Western notions of ancient Oriental wisdom and whatnot. A very fatalistic thread runs through this film, and were it not for some great acting and writing, among other things, all those "coincidences" would've wound up seeming staged. For this alone the picture should be studied in film school, its ability to get the audience to so willingly suspend its disbelief despite some really blatant plot developments and twists (well, it's also a cultural thing too, here, I am sure, as many Chinese believe very much in Fate...). So I enthusiastically recommend this film, much as everyone else -- wow, is there anyone who didn't like this one?? Now, I have to take some issue with the people who apparently didn't like the portrayal of African-Americans in this film. I saw this film with an African-American friend of mine, who is by no means a "political activist" sort, and "even" he was slightly offended. The two scenes involving blacks are, to be sure, not positive. And it's true Asians, particularly immigrants, have a fear of blacks. However, whatever one's politics on race matters in the U.S., I do feel that as a movie concerned with immigrant protagonists, such scenes were justified and even necessary. The INS agents weren't depicted much better, and they were all white. Incidentally, the second and last scene "including" blacks seemed a bit of cinema verite, quite real and not staged -- by which I mean that I think the two young males fighting in the background, and the old black lady trying to break them up, was all happening for real, accidentally, coincidentally, serendipitously. Note that this scene was one of those NY crowd scenes with Leon Lai's character walking about town in a mildly depressed and greatly reflective state, and I think the camera just picked up something fortuitous and most interesting, happening for real. I say this because I doubt that the crowds were staged, and director Peter Chan must be really a devious fellow to deliberately stage such a thing which actually distracts us for the moment from the male protagonist's melancholia. Anyway. My pal and I talked at length over this issue of black representation in this film, and agreeing that the movie had no "social responsibility" (I mean, some would say we're talking romanticizing adultery here!) and no "artisitic obligation" to give a veritable cross-section of the inner-city black community, all I had to do to get him to stop complaining and being so politically correct was to ask him if he can recall the last time a Chinese kid mugged somebody. Whereas Chinese and Asians are frequently attacked; anyone remember the African-American teens who lured and murdered a father of two for $60 worth of Chinese food here? There have been more incidents since this one last year -- none fatal yet, though.... Anyway, this is a great film, and it has no flaws I can perceive. If you want a vastly more sympathetic and "liberal" take on inner-city crime and Chinese immigrants, check out Clara Law's good "Farewell China." Just don't let the black representation red herring trip you up from enjoying this really interesting Chinese take on romantic, "unrequited" love. If you live in NYC, you'll get a great kick out of trying to identify all the locations! Some are obvious, but what's stumped me in cycling around here visiting them all is where "Broadway," where the murder takes place, is located -- the Brooklyn one, or the Queens one? (Definitely not the world-famous Manhattan one.) I've visted both Broadways, and can't figure it out....

The film deals with an every-day subject that lots of films have dealt with so far: boy meets girl. So many people might tend to say "It's always the same with that kind of stories", but in this case they are wrong. This film is simply lovely. Everything is there. The rough meeting, the soft touch, the first realization, the despair in the rain, the slight hope, the fate's sign and finally the supernatural power of emotions. All this with Hongkong and New York - two of the most exciting cities in the world - as background and casted with the outstanding actress Maggie Cheung who I'd love to see more often in the cinema.There might be bigger love stories, but for those two hours you watch this film the most beautiful love story comes from Hongkong.