Chi Ming yi Chun Kiu

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.

Love in a Puff is a Hong Kong film about a boy and girl starring Miriam Yeung Chin Wah as Cherrie and Shawn Yue as Jimmy. Jimmy is the young 20 something, nonchalant, advertise pushing boy while Cherrie is the older 20 something, Sephora make up selling girl full of sass.

When Hong Kong starts to throw down the hammer on smoking, the areas in which people can smoke start to dwindle. Smoking areas become dens for these new outcasts as they huddle in cramped alley ways. With fire between their lips the smoking breaks offer an opportunity to swap ghost stories and catch up on the latest gossip. One day Cherrie mets Jimmy for the first time and as he lights her cigarette he the also lights the flame in her heart.

Aggressively she gets Jimmy attention by her seductive pushing and pulling. Yes, I'm into you, oh maybe I'm not. Yes, no, Yes, no, and on and on it goes because you know you like it.

The idea behind this film is extremely simple but it's the exquisite execution that's worth seeing. The director Ho-Cheung Pang masterfully directs his talented actors to show, not tell; to communicate through lies and body movement. It's not an easy thing to do to show the minute instances of attraction and jealously with just a way you say something.

The cinematography is great at capturing intimate moments between the two. However the constant shallow focus gets a little out of hand at times leaving some of the action out of focus. The music is also a very nice touch having a sort of floating sensation above the characters just like the smoke they exhale.

Love in a Puff is a well done romantic comedy, in the showing I was watching the audience was fully enchanted by the two love birds and laughed unreservedly at the jokes. It's definitely the perfect date movie for those wishing to inhale some laughs.

Who this film is not for:

-People who don't like subtitles

-People who take love too seriously

A realistic novel, set against the backdrop of an improbable and much-needed theme, the harm caused by cigarettes, actually seems to address only the positives here, as the couple meets each other through the smoking area, the realistic tone captivates along with the characters naturally interpreted, natural chemistry, he is 4 years younger, familiar, cute, convincing a light and uncommitted which makes the smokers' drama in the contemporary tender reprisal enthralling...

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.

A light hearted and carefree Rom-Com of the year...

Director Pang Ho Cheung rarely disappoints and his latest venture in Love in a Puff is suitably far less self-indulgence and more carefree and fun to watch. Together with the witty and interesting dialogue co-written by last year High Noon's Heiward Mak, Pang paces the film in almost real time fashion. From the sense of a throw-back to Woody Allen's classic Annie Hall by breaking the third wall with characters talking about love, life, fate and smoking to the real time technique similar to the elegantly viewed Before Sunrise. Pang has created a little masterpiece, slightly underrated, easy to go under the radar, but simply a movie for film lovers to embrace.

Love in a Puff is the kind of film that isn't overtly directed, but rather the actors are allowed space to express themselves in real-time effect. Meeting people at a random ash-can in the back alleyway of Hong Kong is easily believable. After all, for all you smokers out there, how easy is it to share a light or two with a complete stranger with the possibility of striking up a laugh or two? The answer is yes. Pang plays with these premises and goes to the extreme in depicting smokers and constantly smoking. Smoking is what connected them in the first place and former queen of comedy, Miriam Yeung glows in her role as a matured yet simple girl torn between the end of a current relationship and the hope of beginning a new one. Likewise, Shawn Yue gives a career progressing performance as her younger love interest. Despite their best efforts on screen, the duo just somehow never clicks. While the dialogue and interaction between the two is more than interesting, the only evident problem is the lack of chemistry between the two leads. Surely their age difference was taken into account during the movie, but there is something that just stops the duo from kicking in the romantic sparkles. Good friends – yes, but lovers – a definite no-no.

All in all, Love in a Puff might just feel like a lesser Pang Ho Cheung's effort, but in fact it is exactly that carefree and fun feeling which makes this film better than it should be. It is also a return to the trashy, witty, light hearted fun not seen since his earlier works. It might not mean much, but Love in a Puff is easily the most enjoyable and carefree and light hearted Rom-Com of the year...(Neo 2010)

I rate it 8/10

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