Chi Ming yi Chun Kiu

Love in a Puff has a lot about it that I really enjoy. For starters, it was just the right amount of quirky. It was unique without needing to be obnoxious. There were a lot of moments that were heartwarming and fun to witness as the two main characters grew more infatuated with one another. I also enjoyed how the film portrayed love as a very nuanced emotion. It wasn't sappy, in fact it was quite realistic in portraying how far from perfect love, or what we think of as love, can be. The film didn't try to rush a love story, neatly packaged in 1 hour and 44 minutes. Instead, it simply introduces us to the potential beginnings of a partnership. Miriam Chin Wah Yeung gave an incredibly endearing performance. Her facial expressions in particular caused her to stand out among the rest of the cast. I went into this movie not knowing anything about it. Within the first few minutes, I was immediately drawn to her character. This was before I knew she was one of the main characters. She didn't even have very many lines in the beginning, but her expressions really drew me in and made me want to know more about her.

That being said, there was a lot about the movie that I did not enjoy. They tried to mix an interview-style documentary in with the rest of the film not being done in documentary style. This was never explained. We never find out who the interviewers are, why they're interviewing our characters, and how they were supposed to tie into the story. It seemed like a cheap way to reveal the characters backstories and opinions. An interesting premise, but ultimately I feel it fell short. Another thing I wasn't fond of was how unnecessarily mean our main duo could be. There is a scene where Jimmy is unabashedly rude as he describes one of Cherie's friends as an ugly toad. Instead of sticking up for her friend, Cherie just holds back laughter. This scene really didn't do anything to further the plot. It was just cruel. Even as the poor girl cries from being stood up on a date, Jimmy openly laughs at her and Cherie continues to not stick up for her supposed friend. These aren't the type of characters I like to root for, personally.

So really, I'm not sure how I feel about this film. There was a lot that was done right, and some truly charming moments. But also some not-so-charming moments as well.

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!

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.

The girl has mauve hair, an indication of the hipness of this couple who first meet on a smoke break in a Hong Kong alleyway. He's in advertising; she sells cosmetics. And his shirt is the same color, signaling an affinity this movie seeks to explore. A Hong Kong ordinance prohibited smoking in all indoor areas. Employees began gathering in gathering cliques they called "hot pot packs" to smoke outdoors, talk, and have fun. That's the starting point. There's much camaraderie and banter -- liberally laced with profanity -- among the "hot pot pack" that includes a man with round glasses, a girl with a knit cap, a Pakistani pizza man, a little uniformed hotel bellman -- and the couple- to-be, Jimmy (Shawn Yue) and Cherie (Miriam Yeung Chin Wah). The movie begins with a dramatization of a shaggy dog story about a man locked in car trunk in a parking lot who turns out to be a ghost. There's a lot of joking round, and things stay very light, becoming just a little romantic when Jimmy joins Cherie at a costume birthday party at a Karaoke bar -- except Cherie turns out to have a boyfriend, KK (Jo Kuk).

Eventually he finds out about Jimmy (and we see how much fun he and Cherie are having together) and he gets jealous. Love in a Puff shows how romantic text messaging can be -- and how it can give away secrets if spied on. And when Cherie decides to switch to Jimmy's network so her SMS fees aren't too high, Jimmy's cohorts at work say she's too aggressive. Jimmy has just had a breakup with a girlfriend at work, and Cherie is older. These are the givens that do nothing but fuel the mutual attraction.

This movie excels in its constant interplay of lightness and seriousness, in the way the milieu and the social world is sketched in, and in the great chemistry between Yeung and Yue. Their dialogue is breezy and sometimes touching. Dialogue in group scenes is feisty and provocative by sometimes strict Hong Kong standards; Love in a Puff caused some controversy, which could add to its hip gloss for locals. Some of the whimsy recalls romantic moments in Wong Kar-wai, but it's all more mundane, but enough to show that Wong's tropes are far from unique and sometimes come from Hong Kong pop culture. If only Pang had taken more breaks from the sit-com charm and stepped back a bit, he might have created a bit more magic. There is a bit of that with a silhouette-and-full-moon sequence of Cherie at the 80-minute mark, when the story reaches its make-or-break get-serious point. At film's end, the couple come to some kind of commitment, with Jimmy's Land Rover stalled on an overpass, appropriately enough by making serious plans to both give up smoking, and focus on each other.

The apparent triviality of the subject matter, along with the modern urban couple's difficulty with communication (despite multiple platforms) is offset by wit and keen observation of little details every step of the way. This light, cinematic, amusing movie is appealing and fresh -- and has an assured polish, along with casual touches, like the little small-screen 16mm interviews that serve as occasional commentary. All in all, Love in a Puff is a delightful little piece of fluff, as casual as its lovers try to be. One online critic listed it as one of his top movies of 2010 and characterized it as "forgettable in an unforgettable way," and that's about right. Local commentaries say the film won't work dubbed in Mandarin because its Cantonese profanities are untranslatable and had the audiences in stitches throughout. Subtleties apart, the English titles give a fair sense of this pungency. Some little SMS tricks emerge too: for instance, if you type "i n 55!W !" it looks like nonsense or code, but turn the phone upside down and it reads "I MISS U!" Of such details are Puff's flavor and charm made.

After its initially rocky debut in Hong Kong due to its profanity and heavy nicotine use, Love in a Puff has breezed along the festival route, appearing in Seattle, Melbourne, Tokyo, Palm Springs, landing in April 2011 at the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it was screened for this review. The original Chinese title is Chi ming yu chun giu, which means simply Jimmy and Cherie. I was not previously familiar with the work of this prolific 2000's Hong Kong director.

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.