Leading directors lose the plot

For those who have enjoyed Jimmy Liao's illustrated story book Turn Left Turn Right, Johnnie To Kei-fung and Wai Ka-fai's big screen adaption might be a disappointment.

To and Wai are Hong Kong's class A directors, but somehow, by turning Liao's best-selling book into a movie, they have lost the essence of the original tale.

Liao's story, which is about two lonely hearts (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung Wing-kei in its movie version, right) who live in the same building in Taipei but have never met, has touched the hearts of millions of Chinese.

But To and Wai have put a different spin on the story - they have transformed Turn Left, Turn Right from a drama into a love comedy.

But the humour falls flat and even the high points of the movie do not make up for the wildly altered plot.