Chun Kiu yi Chi Ming

7 years after and rewatch the movie. Miriam Yeung is award as the best actress and I have new respect on her. Her acting wasn't astonishing but at least she is showing what a woman at that age being with a younger bf attitude. Her act is convincing. For the whole film, it's a movie art for many aspects, if you go into the details. The director is really the only director I willing to spend money to walk-in cinema to watch his product. Awesome director Pang!

More painful than the first of the trilogy, which was light and fun, here we have breakups and betrayals, third parties involved and with destined suffering, sure, the light humor is maintained, and even sexualized, which I love, mature and realistic relationship, we feel integral part of the quadruple relationship, mega cute, engaging, couple with perfect chemistry, Shawn Yue is a beautiful nerd... And the scene in the end credits s2...

@ 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival

Director Pang Ho-Cheung managed to deliver yet another piece of gem. Love in the Buff, a carry-on of the entertaining Love with a Puff deals with modern romance with an ingenious manner, excellent script, decent chemistry and a believable story. Pang in this film transform into the serial modern dating expert Patrick Kong. While Kong can write a good story about modern relationships and its dynamics and how love generally sucks, Pang out-dux his counterpart by being able to tell the story better on the big screen. Pang talks about similar issues, but what he is able to do in one film, Mr. Kong requires 10. Let's not get too big- headed, as this is by no means a perfect movie. The flaws of the Miriam Yeung-Shawn Yue combo are still questionable at best and despite some improvement, the chemistry is at best decent. However, the film works despite the lack of smoking sequences and relies strongly on the likable presence of Miriam Yeung, the irresistibly hot Mini Yang and as per usual sharp and clever direction from the unmistakable Pang.

Miriam Yeung is really a hit and misses. No manner how much she tries to act, she is just not on the same caliber as let's say Sammi Cheng. Still, Yeung is always a cheerful and likable character no matter how you put it. She is a genuine crowd pleaser and possesses an air of on- screen presence that carries the audience through the movie. The real problem of the film lies in Shawn Yue's character, ever since I praised him with potential in his small role in Jiang Hu, Yue has stalemated to the point of delivering predictable stoic performances. It is a shame as the real star of the movie is not the central character, but rather their younger counterpart delivering a winning performance. Mini Yang is able to depict and show the emotions of a naive girl in love with a guy where his heart buried within his own history. Yang is a perfect combination of hot, sexy and cute and when you add some acting chops to the mix, you got an actress around the corner.

All in all, Love in the Buff is really a good movie, but relies more on Pang's quality script writing, perfect song selections, sharp editing than on the actual acting itself. The good news is that there are plenty of laughs, funny moments, romantic tones and enough regrets to get the audience involved in the process. It is rare a film can overshadow the actors' performances, and not unlike Wong Kar Wai, Pang is able to do this. Still, Love in the Buff could have easily been better; casting Yue-Yeung combo lacks the required chemistry to make this film truly successful. On the hand, in terms of sequels it is twice the rarity that the second film is better than the prior and in this respect, Buff easily out-dux Puff. Now that's an achievement. A good film, but just not great…

Neo rates it 7.5/10

• www.thehkneo.com

The film begins with a story about death, much like the earlier film, but this time round you're probably attuned to Edmund Pang's signature style, with snippets like these easily becoming short films in their own right. It blended absurd comedy with solid dialogue, which is to become the hallmark of Love in the Puff/Buff, and many of Edmund's films. We learn that both Jimmy (Shawn Yue) and Cherie (Miriam Yeung) have moved in together and cohabiting in an apartment, but not everything's fine and dandy in a relationship that calls for much compromises, maturity, little niggling white lies here and there, fused with the director's keen observation of modern day society where a focus on one's career may have a detrimental effect in sucking the romance out of a relationship bone dry. Reality has set in, and it's not looking too good.

It's about time and quality spent with the significant other, and it pains to see the both of them drift, and part over time, nary saying much to each other when they once had some of the best communications and dialogues any couple can have. Their break up isn't very clean to begin with, where Jimmy goes over to Beijing to further his career, given an appraisal of the bountiful opportunities in China, with Cherie staying behind in Hong Kong, only for her company to find itself shutting down its doors for the larger (and cheaper to operate in to boot) China market, but she too given a chance to remain with the organization since she's of low threat to her boss, spelling out a relocation to Beijing as well.

Sure enough, their paths do meet in the most serendipitous of instances in the large capital city of China, but by then Jimmy has already moved on and is in a relationship with You-you (Mini Yang), an air stewardess much closer to Jimmy's age (don't forget that Cherie is many years older), and with physical assets that gets compared to in one of the most hilarious scenes in the film. One notices that the comedy in this film, and in the Love in a Puff/Buff series, is never slapstick, but boiled down to very strong language delivering its razor sharp wit, and of course, coarseness as well that only serves to reinforce the point that dubbing will only make all these moments woefully lost in translation.

While Jimmy's story arc in his relationship with You-you is great eye candy, especially since the latter has this effervescence demeanour and their hookup also based on a joke onboard a plane that served up another highlight, it's actually Cherie's story arc leading to a relationship of sorts with Sam (Xu Zheng) that proved to be more substantial and engaging instead, involving an observation about love in Beijing dealing with how singles get hooked up through family, who spend time scouring parks where parents of other singletons would advertise their own children's qualities, and appraisals done before the setting of blind dates. There's a point put across as well about the magnanimity of the Mainland Chinese in love and relationships, and how pragmatic their attitude can be as well, and this point will likely go down well with the Mainland audience, while doesn't come across as sucking it up because hey, we're all here to root for any sliver of possibility that our primary couple will break all deals and get together. After all, they still hold a candle for each other and constantly keep in touch through secret late night rendezvous or dirty weekend retreats behind their respective partner's back.

While it looks like a light hearted romp, it has plenty of heart put into the story, and those who have been through breakups will probably identify some takeaways that Love in the Buff points out well, with its exploration of themes like how one lover tends to exert an influence over the other whether subtly or otherwise, and how we deal with the implications of a messy and unclear breakup, where both Jimmy and Cherie obviously has pride, ego and longing in the way of calling it quits properly. And it's not all fun and laughter, since Pang Ho Cheung includes some heart-breaking moments but steering very clear of melodrama, which would have really ruined the treatment of the film.

A whole bevy of stars remain best to be unnamed to maintain the comical nature when they get introduced, from recognizable up and coming ones to those whom we have not seen for the longest time since bowing out of the limelight, bringing back plenty of memories especially for those amongst us who are of the couple's age and have grown up with the 80s and 90s pop culture. The end credits is wickedly hilarious, so don't leave the cinema just yet when the first credit starts to roll off, not only will you be treated to a short epilogue, but it continues to wryly poke fun at how we prefer our most embarrassing moments caught in digital records to be erased from the consciousness of all and sundry. Let's see how one of the actors wriggle out from this one indeed! It's probably only the half way mark now, but Love in the Buff made this trip worthwhile already. Highly recommended and a definite must watch for fans of Pang Ho Cheung and Love in a Puff. This is a more than worthy sequel as it gets a little bit more intimate with our favourite characters, and it powers its way into my top films of the year to date!

From pure Hong Kong film to co-production film, Chunjiao or Chunjiao, Zhiming has changed a bit. Together for too long, want to get rid of that memory, but found that in the end, I become you! Chunjiao has also become Zhiming.