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Paul Fonoroff

Starring: Andy Lau Tak-wah, Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin, Charlie Young Choi-nei

Director: Daniel Yu Wai-kwok

Category: IIA (Cantonese)

For the second time this season, Andy  Lau  turns on the  waterworks in a  mawkish melodrama whose glossy  polish is overshadowed by some of the most blatantly manipulative contrivances  of early 21st-century cinema. It may claim to be all about love, but viewers with a  low threshold for saccharine will wonder what's love got to do with it.

The  technical expertise displayed by producer-director-writer Daniel Yu  is  put to the service of a script (co-written  by co-director Lee Kun-lok) that's  patently phoney.

The problem isn't necessarily  the soap opera  narrative: Dr Ko (Lau) is so bereft over the death of his wife, Chi-ching (Charlene Choi  of pop duo Twins), that  he's  intrigued when fate brings him together with the recipient of her heart,  Yuen-sum (Charlie Young).  The scenario's thin ice cracks completely when it's revealed that Ko is an exact ringer for  Yuen-sum's estranged husband, hairstylist Derek (also played by  Lau).

But what dooms the picture's credibility is the falseness of the sentiments. As a scientist, Ko knows better than any lay- man that the heart  doesn't hold the key to personality, let alone love. Yet he becomes hopelessly infatuated with Yuen-sum to the point of assuming Derek's identity. It's all for a gallant purpose,  because the  woman is about to  die and he wants to make her final days full of sweetness and light.

Yuen-sum suffers from a disease traceable to Judith Traherne, Bette Davis' tragic heroine in Dark Victory (1939), in which the fatal illness doesn't affect one's appearance. And like Judith,  Yuen-sum suffers amid beautiful surroundings in  a house to die for (special kudos to art director Ben Luk Man-wah). But, unlike Judith,  Yuen-sum's environment is sterile and the dialogue she spouts artificial, dripping with supposed meaning, but lacking in wit.

Nary a  soul intrudes on her home - not even a servant  (although, naturally, we never see  Yuen-sum clean or cook). Her solitude serves the scriptwriters' noble cause of making it convenient for Ko to  be Derek without bumping into people he doesn't know.

Even less auspicious are the incessant flashbacks to Ko's idyllic love with Chi-ching, a typical Choi-style woman-child that will have non-Twins fans cringing. Although her character dies within the  first five minutes, she's a constant presence. The filmmakers would have been better off leaving her dead.

The lethargic pace and over-emotive music, complete with celestial chorus, add to the frustration as the sham theatrics  inch along to a supposedly uplifting finale. There's no denying the movie is beautifully shot, with some of cinematographer Jason Kwan Chi-yiu's images truly breathtaking. And it's a tribute to  Lau's youthful vigour that, despite being  about 20 years older than Choi, the two make a convincing couple. It's too bad they and the script suffer from a terminal case of cutesiness.

All about Love is screening now



All About Love