Yau ching yam shui baau

It would be hard to think of a film more predictable than "Love Me Love My Money," and yet it manages to be an enjoyable film, mainly because the characters look like they would be fun to hang out with. Tony Leung, who is an excellent actor and usually appears in serious films, hams it up as the stingy but handsome and charismatic billionaire, and manages some pretty funny lines. One gets the feeling that Shu Qi is playing herself, or at least an earlier version of herself, and she is good at it. Who would not want to know, or at least look at, such a beautiful and charming woman, even if she is rather slow to catch on to things, and her voice can be a little shrill? Theresa Mak is amusing and appealing as Shu Qi's vamp sidekick. The film slows down at the end with the obligatory montage of wistful looks, set to schmaltzy music, and the boring last scene, which is neither funny nor believable - either one would have sufficed.

Although the background music is above average, and the slap stick comedy at the midpoint of the movie is fun, and the plot is interesting, LOVE ME, LOVE MY MONEY suffers from being blandly directed.

However, none of these details truly matter because the main reason for watching this film is to see Chi Hsu of picture book fame. Chi Hsu plays Choi (who is also known as "Girl 14"). Words fail to describe the spell she is able to cast over healthy young men, but let it suffice to say that she is the ultimate elegant much loved princess of all female kind.

The IMDB does not list character names for this film, but also noteworthy is the actress who plays Fong (who is also known as "Choraform").

Let these two lead actresses read a phone book, let them sit on a phone book, or let them simply stand there holding a phone book -- it does not matter, just please keep them in front of the camera!

The first half of "Love Me, Love My Money" is mildly amusing romcom fare. The second half I didn't see having abandoned the DVD because what I was seeing was not worth the effort required to read the subtitles. I've watched many subtitled films and this flick probably has the worst I've seen. The font is small, the translation poor and verbose, and the subtitles aren't stacked to allow for longer on-screen durations but delivered one line at a time requiring a lot speed reading with eyes fixed at the bottom of the screen. The result is a lot of pausing to be able to catch the humor buried in the dialogue (no sight gags), watch the facial expression, etc. Remember, if you watch this dialogue-intensive film with someone else (Non-Chinese speakers) you'll only be able to watch as fast as the slowest reader.

When you're rich, it's hard to find out if someone loves you for who you are or they're enamored with your status and wealth. Richard in this story tries to clear the difference.

Richard (Tony Leung) and Tom are friends and business associates. They are millionaires, but has hard time finding love. One day at a snake restaurant, they meet Choi (Shu Qi) and Chloroform, two girls who came to eat, but had to share the table. Later that night by coincidence, Richard and Tom meet Choi and Chloroform at a bar. They start to get acquainted with each other. Richard hides from Choi the fact that he's rich. He goes out of his way to make himself look ordinary, until Choi discovers Richard talking to Tom on a video talking about how Richard was pretending to be poorer than he is. Choi is furious, and decides to break up with Richard.

In the end, Richard's attempt to make himself poor didn't matter. He was showing Choi a very good time only a millionaire can. So it was natural that Choi would fall for Richard. If Richard didn't show Choi good time, it's doubtful that he would have succeeded in getting Choi. So it seems that Richard wasn't 100% successful in cutting himself off from the influence of his own money.

Wong Jin sticks to his lavish style where all the people who appears in his story looks like they're from high society. The story is as usual, geared to entertain, but this one, the focus was not so clear. Movie is of good quality, but the story is weak compared to other Wong Jin's movies.

Skinflint businessman Richard (Leung) doesn't feel bad when he sacks his employees and secretary to cut unnecessary costs. He also doesn't bat an eyelid when his gold-digging girlfriend leaves after he refuses to give her money. She gets her revenge by cancelling his credit cards and giving away his furniture.

Suddenly destitute, he's forced to rely on the generosity of Choi (Shu Qi - lovely as always), a good Samaritan who helps him out even though she thinks he's a scumbag who makes a habit of cheating women out of money.

When Choi wants him to repay her by pretending to be her boyfriend, to throw off the unwanted advances of her father's choice of husband, Richard starts to see the appeal in stringing women along for money.

If you're watching this purely because it stars Leung and/or Shu Qi, you're not going to be too disappointed. They're a charismatic pair and their chemistry is good, and there are enough genuinely funny scenes to satisfy the 'com' part of the genre. The 'rom' side is handled strictly by the numbers. The leads are backed up in fine fashion by Theresa Mak and Yuk Fei Wong. Anyone who remembers the latter's singing prowess in Shaolin Soccer may be happy to learn he bursts into song in this one, too.

If you have to rely on subtitles (like I do), unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a good version of this flick available. I first watched a Chinese import copy a few years back which was almost indecipherable, and recently 'upgraded' to the Tai Seng version currently on sale in the UK. The subs were better, but disappeared way too fast and were still riddled with bad spelling and grammar. The film also seemed to drop frames, or even whole seconds in places. A shame.