Yuen fan

When people speak of the Shaw Brothers film studio they're usually discussing their run of outstanding martial arts movies which really are second to none. However, people do forget that Shaw dabbled in other genres, including spy films, gangster thrillers, comedies, family dramas, and yes, romance. BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE is a Hong Kong romantic comedy focused around that region's newly-opened subway system.

I should make it clear now that I despite romantic comedies on the whole. They're the opposite of what I go for in the cinema. Saying that, BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE is a pretty good example of its genre, and a film that even I enjoyed on occasion. I watched it mainly to see the three cast members in early roles: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Mui, and all are good value. Leslie Cheung is far from the doomed and tragic persona he would become, instead playing a likeably geeky part. Maggie Cheung is the love interest and paves the way for later fare like POLICE STORY and even IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. Anita Mui is as spunky as ever and shows some of the great personality that would make her a driving force in both Hong Kong cinema and music.

The film is fast-paced and made with the usual painstaking attention to detail that characterised many a Shaw movie. There's plenty of humour here to go with the romance, my particular favourite moment being the madcap, sped-up driving test through the streets of the city. My dislike of the genre as a whole is the only thing that prevents me from rating this film more highly.

Behind the Yellow Line (1984) was one of the last Shaw Brothers productions. This romantic comedy is about a young man (Leslie Cheung) who's late to his first day of work. After missing a taxi ride, he decides to catch the subway. On the subway train he meets a pretty young lady named Monica (Maggie Cheung) and a loud mouth woman named Anita (Anita Mui) who messes with him just for fun. But it's love at first sight for Leslie and Monica. Anita also falls for Leslie but he only has eyes for Monica. In this crazy world and by simple fate will Leslie and Monica find true love with each other?

A nice surprise from the waning days of Shaw Brothers. Taylor Wong and Gordon Chan create a very enjoyable romantic comedy. Maggie Cheung looking good as ever in her film debut and Anita Mui (with 80's hairdo) acting her way to a Hong Kong Film Festival award for best supporting actress. Alfred Cheung makes a cameo appearance as himself inside a movie theater. He scolds Leslie because he has an argument and scoffs at the movie he and Monica were watching.

If you like romantic comedies then this movie is just for you. A great film debut from Maggie Cheung. It was nothing but up for her and Anita Mui. The Cantonese soundtrack has a duet between Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui.

Highly recommended.

On his way to work "Paul" (Leslie Cheung) just happens to meet a beautiful young lady named "Monica" (Maggie Cheung) in the subway and falls in love at first sight. Wanting to know as much about her as he can he follows her everywhere. Unfortunately, as luck would have it another young woman by the name of "Anita" (Anita Mui) also happens to become attracted to Paul and as a result she begins to follow Paul. The difference though is that Anita is a trickster and enjoys having fun at Paul's expense. This creates all kinds of difficulties for Paul who has other things (i.e. Monica) on his mind. Now, as far as romantic comedies go this particular film wasn't too bad but it could have been much better if the director (Taylor Wong) had managed to put more cohesion between some of these scenes. Because of this I thought the overall movie seemed to be somewhat uneven. Be that as it may, Maggie Cheung was absolutely gorgeous and I thought both she and Leslie Cheung performed very well together. At any rate, given the erratic nature mentioned earlier I have to rate this movie as just average.