ReviewMy Prince Edward film review: Stephy Tang considers marriage in acclaimed Hong Kong relationship drama

Screenwriter Norris Wong’s first feature film as director, My Prince Edward is a sensitively wrought story of relationships and their consequences

Stephy Tang cements her place as the leading actress of her generation, and Chu Pak-hong is excellent as her possessive, obnoxious boyfriend

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(From left) Sham Ka-ki, Chu Pak-hong and Stephy Tang in a still from My Prince Edward (category IIB; Cantonese, Mandarin), directed by Norris Wong.

Published: 7:00pm, 11 Jun 2020Updated: 7:24pm, 12 Jun 2020

3.5/5 stars

A Hong Kong couple fall gently out of love in My Prince Edward, the full-length feature directing debut of screenwriter Norris Wong Yee-lam. Set around Golden Plaza, a shopping centre for wedding supplies in the working-class neighbourhood of Prince Edward, the understated drama takes a delicate look at how a woman’s freedom might be stifled by a jaded relationship.

Stephy Tang Lai-yan ( The Empty Hands ) cements her place as one of the leading Hong Kong actresses of her generation in the role of Cheung Lei-fong (or Fong), a clerk working at a bridal gown shop in Golden Plaza. Long estranged from her own parents, Fong is also becoming less certain about her love for Edward Yan (theatre star Chu Pak-hong, last seen on the big screen in Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight ), her boyfriend of seven years.

Refreshingly, the character of Edward is not your typical Hong Kong romantic film lead. Chu – who was nominated for best actor at both Taipei’s Golden Horse Film Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards – portrays him as a possessive, slightly obnoxious and almost pathetic man-child. He is oblivious to Fong’s concerns, and completely obedient to the demands of his controlling mother (Nina Paw Hee-ching).

When Edward publicly proposes to Fong in the expectation that she’ll just say yes, and with his mother already planning to house the couple in a cramped apartment Fong doesn’t even like, the protagonist has to make up her mind quickly. The inconvenient truth that she is still legally married – Fong got herself into a sham marriage 10 years ago for the money to escape from her home – adds to her troubles.