A Moment of Romance

One of the most imitated and popular Hong Kong productions of the 90s, A Moment of Romance sees a modern-day Romeo and Juliet-style tale under the veil of contemporary underground Triad warfare, far more than a teenybopper romantic fantasy. In many ways the film is responsible for many a cliché within its industry; a disaffected youth, the good girl romantic interest and a cartoonish villain, however, it's the way these clichés are all assembled within the film that makes it so memorable. "Director" Benny Chan has his way with the clichés and throws in enough slow motion, syrupy Cantopop music video montages and hyperemotional crescendos to tax even the weepiest audience member. The core emotions that the film mines are so innately compelling that they're not lost beneath bombastic montages or sudden flashes of gangland violence. It's often stated this was heavily ghost-directed by Johnnie To and it's not hard to see why, so much of the film carries many of his later stylings. The film works because it is a consciously chosen cinematic style and is used without fear with all available means with the superb cast all delivering perfect performances to compliment. Andy Lau brings righteous anger and hidden tenderness to an exceptional genre character. What's so compelling about the character and the performance is that Wah Dee acts and very rarely talks. His decisions have believable and compelling consequences with the affirmation of Dee's morality coming with a price, and only one outcome is truly possible. Put simply, A Moment of Romance has it all; fiery action, sweeping cinematography, an unforgettable love story and beautiful chemistry, quick-witted humour, a beautiful score and more. The film triumphs, not despite its genre excess, but perhaps because of it.

Its fine, the main lead is great as Andy Lau who made hundreds of Hong Kong films like As Tears Go By (1988) as with here is Jacklyn Chien-Lien Wu her first film which was before inspired Fame (1980) and after this one went on to become also a star. She mainly didn't make anything too wonderful but certainly was in Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). I'm not really in love with this film but it is not boring, it is just that the action of the triads has some nasty violence, of course, and then some rather silly romance. All the time there are splendid Hong Kong locations and gradually we get involved in the action and also the over the top romance .

Produced by by a trilogy of greats - Johnnie To, Ringo Lam and Wong Jing, director Benny Chan's A Moment Of Romance was one of the finest, teen-angst drama, gangster movies of its time. Starring the never ageing and handsome Andy Lau in one of his best roles and performances, the film spawned a couple of sequels and inspired a host of wanna-be's!

Beautiful lighting compliments the great cinematography capturing many night scenes and a raw grittiness of Hong Kong, backed by a great cast, top stunt work and violent action scenes courtesy of Yuen Bun and Bruce Law, with Bun also getting a cameo role.

Although the blend of teen drama, gangsters and romance may have been rife in Hong Kong, Andy Lau was the king of such genre and A Moment Of Romance polishes all the rough edges, delivering a blinding film that is hard to beat. The wonderful Ng Man Tat is as great as always, playing Wah Dee's street uncle who gets picked on by the local hoodlums and likes to annoy the traffic wardens by popping quarters in the parking meters as they are about to run out...

Although many people like to criticise Andy Lau's acting, its hard to deny the man his dues after 30 years of entertaining us with over 170 films (not to mention his TV and music accolades). In the same year as A Moment Of Romance, Lau had made 10 features in all, most of which are considered some of his best and some that I love personally. The man is a machine, and even with that pressure on him in just 12 months, can still provide such an amazing performance like this one.

Tense, emotional, and playing like a modern day Romeo & Juliet - A Moment Of Romance is one of Benny Chan's finest and one of Hong Kong cinema's best. It's darkly violent, intense finale comes with some lump-in-the-throat moments on the stunningly lit streets of Hong Kong. Love it!

Overall: Superbly made and brilliantly acted, A Moment Of Romance is one of Hong Kong cinema's finest examples of a non-martial arts film from the golden years...

'A Moment of Romance' is undoubtedly one of those old HK cinematic gems, but to appreciate and applaud the movie utmost, one should really understand and familiar with the origin of the movie itself. By the time around late 80's to mid 90's, plenty of HK movie appeared in theme dominated not far from Triad Flick, a sad ending love story, hard boiled gun fight action or some silly comedy (mostly by Stephen Chow and gang). AMOR in this case still follows the mainstream, combining the tragic love story in the midst of underground Triad affair. The main lead Andy Lau around that time enjoyed the peak of his popularity that he did starred in not less than 10 movies a year while the main lead Jacklyn Wu rolled in her very first debut which propelled her to stardom. Andy played Wah Dee, a young and rebellious triad member with some remorse within, while Jacklyn played Jojo, an innocent young girl come from a rich family.

The plot actually flows so lightly and in some way over dramatically, yet it never get you boring and leave a mesmerizing impressions. A coincidence encounter between Wah Dee and Jojo in a robbery went wrong lead to an endearing feeling between them. And when a love story happens between a triad member and the only heir of a wealthy family, it doesn't take a genius to get the idea of how it wasn't a silky smooth romance, amidst the conflict occurred between Wah Dee and fellow brutish gang leader Trumpet(Tommy Wong) in account of Jojo. The friendship between Wah Dee and Rambo(Richard Ng), an all time loser who normally nobody would even took a glance at, added some depth to the story and put an implicit character depiction of Wah Dee himself.

The thing that differs AMOR from movie alike is the chemistry that was too well built between characters, and on top of all is the beautiful score and unforgettable soundtrack(by the remarkable HK band Beyond and Shirley Yuen), which were perfectly fit into each scene. Andy himself never look better and perfectly match the character of a prince charming figure on a 500cc racing motor-bike, with his heart-robbing eye glance, charismatic and intriguing good-looking, in my opinion is those of very rare to be leveled even after decades. Jacklyn herself who portrays an innocent young girl in love is truly convincing both by her looks and demeanor. In short way : Perfect casts! And despite the seeming a little aged action scenes and some lines, it still delivers a powerful gesture all the way.

In conclusion, for those who are already familiar with classic 90's Hong Kong cinema, AMOR has placed itself as unforgettable cinematic experience, type of cult which you grew up with, and for those who are still unfamiliar, AMOR would be a fine introductory.

-Very Highly Recommended-

This movie is one of the greatest action-packed love story movies of all time since the releasing in 1990. This film is also being one of the best Hong Kong films forever, in my opinion. The main male character, Andy Lau (Lau tak wah), acts as Wah Dee, a young triad orphan gangster in Hong Kong who gotten raised by a group of prostitutes who are his mother's workmates in brothel. For main female character actress, Wu Chien Lien plays the part of Jojo, a 17-years-old rich heiress gotten captured as a hostage by Wah Dee during his escape from the police officers.

The character of Wah Dee is the most famous Andy Lau's iconic of all time. Everything about this character's traits, clothing, hair style, and personalities fits 29-years-old Andy Lau perfectly. He is really handsome and shinning in that movie to the point that it created effects to a lot of male teenagers and mans in my country in 1990s, everyone tried to dress like him and copy many of his things in the movie, such as, riding Big Bike motorcycle and smoking. Moreover, the Big Bike motorcycle ridden by Andy Lau in the movie was suddenly popular and being the icon of this movie until nowadays, and that motorcycle is Suzuki RG Gamma 500. On the other hand, the character of Jojo did not affect female teenager and women that much, however, her character is recognized to be a model of woman whom wanted to be married by Asian mans in that era.

This movie's duration is 1 hour and 32 minutes. The storyline runs smoothly and manually show the development of relationship with great pace, neither too fast nor too slow, and is not complicated to understand. Each scene is connected and reasonable, it clearly shows the causes of each events, the changes of characters, and the results. Every actor performs wonderfully, including those who are not main characters. The tense emotions, aggressive tone of voice, and precious fighting actions. Their expressions are amazing, these factors make me feel connected to them. The friendships, brotherhoods, bonds, and loyalties depicted in this movie is heartwarming. The chemistry between Wah Dee and Jojo which seems to be impossible at first turns to be a timeless bittersweet romance story. The most impressing scene for me is the ending scene, both the song itself and the song's meaning in that scene completes the atmosphere, story, and ending flawlessly.

This movie once created massive impact in Asia, though it is produced with not much budget, but it is undoubted to be one of the greatest romantic movies of all time and it is still recognized to be great memory of people in that era as well. And even it has already passed for 3 decades, yet it still can create huge impact to me who was born in 2000s. I decided to buy a motorcycle due to this. My sense of fashion is also inspired by watching this movie as well.