Siu chan chan

I braved this Aaron Kwok-Kelly Chan vehicle to see Teresa Mo's first (and only) movie appearance since 1994. I've missed watching her goofy-cute performances and she doesn't disappoint, even if And I Hate You So is as lame a movie as they come.

The plot sounded promising - a columnist and a deejay get into an extended catfight, trashing each other through their respective medias. However, the characters (or the actors) fail to rise up to expectations. Kwok's deejay is just mean and misogynist, and Chan's columnist is simply bossy and untalented. Considering the kissy-kissy movie poster, it's plain to see that they're going to fall in love despite their spats. How they look past each other's shortcomings is beyond me. Well, lame-o deserves lame-o.

Teresa Mo and Eric Tsang apparently get a romantic side plot of their very own as Mo only interacts with the two leads a couple of times and Tsang not at all. I thought it was perhaps their romance was supposed to parallel that of the leads', but I failed to see any relation besides the obvious falling in love with each other, so I'm attributing it to uneven scripting. It's not a bad thing, detaching Mo from the uninteresting leads, but she's given much less screen time as a result. Still, it doesn't stop her from outshining the leads and stealing the movie with her radiant presence. As evidence, she's was the only actor here nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award. 5/10

Hmmm, the two leads are too hard of a character to really stir up romantic feelings, and their interactions rather flat despite the mud slinging that goes on. Aaron Kwok, although a gorgeous looking guy, never appears like he has deep character in any of his movies, or someone with a caring personality. Kelly Chen is also too stiff and don't convey kindness, or loving feelings on any of her movies. Now two such characters got together in a romantic comedy ! It would have only worked with a title like I Hate You So.

Both actors do a credible job, but I couldn't get to like the character Aaron Kwok's was playing. He was pretty mean in this movie. Kelly Chen's character was only marginally better. The romance between Eric and Mo on the sideline was silly and it didn't match the mood of the two serious main characters. There were other romantic comedy with two leads antagonizing each other like Pillow Talk between Doris Day, and Rock Hudson. At least those guys had some charm even when they were going at each other. This is not the case with these two.

Plot was pretty good, so the movie was okay to watch. It's an unlikely story of romance happening to two such characters.

This is a pretty good spin on the romantic comedy genre. The feisty Kelly happens upon a thrift shop and finds the record she gave to her first boyfriend in the bargain bin! Although furious, she wants it back but it's already been bought by a DJ, Aaron. He didn't have enough money and is putting it on hold. She begs him to sell it back to her and he refuses. To add insult to injury, he tells everyone about this on his radio show. And the fighting begins..

The story is pretty good, especially the dialogue between Aaron and Kelly and both actors seem to have good chemistry. Overall, I would recommend this movie.

By the numbers rom-com starring Kelly Chen and Aaron Kwok.

Pretentious, self-obsessed newspaper columnist Luna (Chen) finds an old LP in a junk shop, that turns out to be the one she gave to her first true love as a gift years before. She tries to buy it but it's reserved for Cheung (Kwok), an arrogant radio host who dispenses his rather dubious wisdom between playing classic tracks on vinyl. He refuses to let her have the record, and mentions the incident on his show. Incensed by this, she responds by attacking him in her column, resulting in a tit-for-tat battle that soon gets out of hand.

That their hate turns to love at some point in the movie is a given. In fact, the only surprise on offer here is that the film flits between this pair and another, only tenuously linked to Luna and Cheung. Theresa Mo plays Cat, the lady who owns the junk shop. Feeling lonely, she buys a pet dog, and unwittingly finds her soulmate when she runs into the dog's original owner, Mo (Eric Tsang). This second story is amusing, but mostly only succeeds in highlighting how lightweight the main story is.

My main problem with this film is how unlikeable the leads are. Chen's bug-eyed gurning gets old fast, and Kwok doesn't put in much effort. Their characters seem shallow and it's hard to muster the enthusiasm to care what happens to them.

Still, it's a nice enough movie, and if you're after a pleasant little time-waster you could do a lot worse.

I really enjoyed this movie. Of course it was obvious that the two main characters would fall in love, but that's usually the case in romantic movies. I liked the humor of their interactions. It was a feel good movie, and I even watched it twice in the same week. Lots of laughs and a few giggles.