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What a waste of my time!!!

A Brilliant Conflict

The first must-see film of the year.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Men and Women has a lot of story, but most of them are normal. The deeper truth is the most normal story has an exciting part in your heart. This movie moves you by show you the misty mood of ambiguity. It's an enjoyment of inner world.

Time Out Hong Kong gives this delightful rom-com five stars out of six, calling it director PANG Ho-cheung's "minor masterpiece", for good reasons. While smoking provides the general backdrop and you do see an awful lot of puffing on screen, to place too much emphasis on this aspect would be missing the point. What Pang did was making clever use of the introduction of the indoor smoking ban legislation as a vehicle to sketch the contemporary environment and lifestyle of the urban late-twentyish and thirtyish. Nor should the contemporary nature of the courtship game be over-emphasized. What you see, that Pang has deftly depicted, is the he-and-she game that has been going on since the beginning of civilization: hide-and-seek, coy-and-bold, hard-to-get and all these variations. He has, however, done a fantastic job in bringing you right into the middle of the contemporary world.While Director Pang deserves a lot of credit, he had help. One is Heiward Mak, talented young director whose debut "High noon" (2008) has received wild acclaim. She is invited by Pang to be the co-scriptwriter, providing no doubt the most valuable angle from the fairer sex. Another is Roy Szeto who is sort of the consultant on how the new generation generally behaves, particularly in the department of obscenity, language-wise. I am not kidding and I do not worry about a libel suit from Szeto because this is properly on record, in the public domain: a radio interview with Director Pang. In fact, this has been quite an issue because the movie is rated Category III (the "R" equivalent) solely because of the swearing, case in point of the absolutely absurd rating system, or witless people who exercise it, but likely both. If you go by their yardstick, Martin Scorsese's "The departed" should have been completed banned, and Mark Wahlberg locked up for life! Enough venting. "Love in a puff" is everything you would want in a rom-com: witty and funny, brisk and breezy, believable and likable characters, innovative narration, tender as well as hilarious moments, and at times quite insightful. The two leads Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue take the movie along capably while people in the supporting cast have their own moments too. And yes, Roy Szeto is one of them, giving a pitch-perfect portrayal of the contemporary educated and liberated corporate animal. Highly recommended.

First of all, it is very subjective as I am a smoker. Second, you may find a way out if you are a non-smoker or anti-smoking, you are not the target audience of this romantic comedy.Since smoking is prohibited in all indoor area in Hong Kong, people used to smoke in the alley nearby the... workplace. In the smoking break, the cosmetic salesgirl, Cherie (Miriam Yeung) and Jimmy (Shawn Yue), they begin the relationships under this unique circumstance.From time to time, they text each other, smoke tons of cigs and hang around together. Director (Pang Ho-Cheung) flawlessly captures the habit, manner and weird things nowadays. Meanwhile, the Mandarin dialogue is sarcastic in a very roundabout way. However it couldn't be fully translated as it relates local culture.Text messaging, smoke and drinks, hang out, facebook or whatsoever. The movie reflects bundle of social behavior and interaction, it's truly a picture of the relationships between twenties / thirties. No matter how easy to communicates, they failed to express their own feeling, especially Jimmy, who does it by text messaging rather than facing each other. The natural mind-set is another enjoyable piece of the movie. Besides, the mockumentary-like video clips intersecting to the film is like a bunch of snacks or tricks. It's not bad at all, conversely, I would rather say this is essential and constructive to the plot.As a final point, Pang sets it well but hardly to say it is structured firmly. Yet, this smoking break is interesting and enjoyable.

I don't smoke, but I will tell you that from time to time my admiration of the smokers is that camaraderie formed given the gathering of like-minded (erm, addicted?) folks within Singapore's context of the yellow box, where they are permitted to light up and puff to their hearts' content in public (now with even stricter regulations it must be 5m away from an building entrance). It's an "us against the world", but that doesn't faze them at all. In need of a light? Well, someone at the box will gladly assist you. Need another stick but have smoked your last? Somebody else can offer you one. For free. And not to mention the many talk-cock-sing-song sessions that occur, where the yellow box has evolved into a bona fide grapevine for news, jokes and gossips to be traded. This yellow box bonding is much envied.But of course that isn't reason enough to convert me, but it sure is reason enough for Hong Kong director Pang Ho-cheung to weave a romantic comedy based on this premise, and he does so with much aplomb in the opening scene being a direct result, that it just grabs you and holds your attention all the way until the end, with an astute sense and insightful capture of the essence and psyche of the modern day dating game. Being a young (though established) director, he combines the in-thing of today's technology, with SMS and doctored Facebook profile pictures into a commentary of sorts about the games people play when looking for love.Hong Kong too has similar strict regulations in the areas where one can smoke, and these are all explained in the film. Ho uses them as a social background to weave the story of two characters - the English title is nowhere remotely close to the Chinese one, which is "Jimmy and Cherie", named after the two characters played by Shawn Yue and Miriam Yeung, in a sort of Romeo and Juliet fashion and the likes. They meet at one of the smoking areas where they trade stories with folks from other parts of the neighbourhood, and soon become fast friends, hitting it off almost instantaneously after cosmetics salesgirl Cherie learns of the unfortunate infidelity of ad executive Jimmy's (soon to be ex) girlfriend, which provides enormous punctuations of laughter since she (and others not supposed to be in the loop) are sworn to secrecy.Despite their age gap (in real life as well) which is made explicitly known in the narrative, both Shawn and Miriam (last seen on screen some 3 years ago with Hooked on You, another Hong Kong romantic comedy I dig) share a lovable, natural chemistry which is hallmark of any great romance, despite roadblocks placed in their way like current relationships gone sour, and the questioning of the What If when someone else who does seem more like one's soulmate comes along. Unravelling itself over seven consecutive days, we follow these two wonderfully crafted characters as they hit it off, and quietly root for them to come together, though it's no mean feat, almost reminiscent of anyone's experience in a relationship when the beginning phase seems pretty awesome, until expectations start settling in and the mind games start to creep in.The jokes here are laugh a minute when the director gets his story to deliver punchline after punchline which worked almost all the time, and shows his unique knack at pace and knowing what works. Included are some documentary-reel like clips containing faux pas interviews with the characters which while a tangent from the main narrative, contains plenty of rip-roaring revelations that continue all the way until during the end credits (which contains those which don't exactly fit into the main narrative proper). The main theme from the soundtrack is also beautiful to listen to, and becomes instant earworm.This is another winner from Pang Ho-cheung, and is definitely highly recommended. I think it'll make its way to Singapore despite the focus on the smokes (with some redeeming factors), but surely, this is one film that will lose out tremendously if dubbed in Mandarin, since the colourful, fast-and-furiously delivered-only-in-Cantonese swear phrases will lose their shine (the audience was just going nuts!). Oh and thanks to this film, I will also want to try out the dry-ice toilet bowl effect, nothing like taking a heavenly dump!