Lian xia lian xia lian lian xia

With "Summer Love Love" (aka "Lian Xia Lian Xia Lian Lian Xia") being a Hong Kong romantic comedy, of course I took the opportunity to sit down and watch it when I was given the chance.

However, it turned out that "Summer Love Love" was a very, and with heavy emphasis on very, generic romantic comedy. The movie failed to be original, failed to stand out in a vast ocean of romantic comedies. Actually, the movie lack spark, originality and that special ingredient to properly entertain the audience.

The storyline in the movie was very mundane and generic. Nothing here haven't been seen or done in other movies in the same genre already. However, it was impressive that director Wilson Chin managed to come up with a movie that just lacked that special spark that is usually found in romantic comedies.

The characters in the movie were very one dimensional and there wasn't much of any selling points to the individual characters. Which made for a very bland experience, especially because all the characters essentially were cut from the same generic cloth.

What impressed me, however, about "Summer Love Love", was all the impressive cameos that they managed to get in here. For long time fans of the Hong Kong cinema, you should be pleased to see the likes of Ekin Cheng, Eric Tsang and Miriam Chin Wah Yeung make short appearances in the movie in some hilarious roles.

"Summer Love Love" is a bland romantic comedy, and it definitely doesn't support more than a single viewing. There are far better and more entertaining romantic comedies in the Hong Kong cinema, especially if you go back to the late 1990s or early 2000s.

Some movies are just made for a particular market of audience and Summer Love Love is certainly a movie made for sleazy male counterparts. It is certainly more than okay to showcase not a few, but a ballet of le-mos. I just do not understand one thing, why do the guys always have to be so pathetic going after these pretty girls with some balls in between. Why can't these guys have some sort of self-respect and a tad of intelligence in them while drooling and chasing these girls at the same time. You can't blame the actors for these events as they are only doing as per the script, but surely one would prefer a somewhat smart comedy with all those hot chicks along the coastline as well. Ignoring the lowering of your intelligence part, there is certainly plenty of eye candy on offer with Zhang Xinyu stealing the spotlight away from big bust Carol Yeung. Apart from this, Alex Fong and his counterparts are a complete waste of time. All in all, Summer Love Love is not really a movie, but rather an pictorial album to showcase a bunch of le-mos with a subplot of a bunch of losers chasing after them. It is a kind of movie that worked out fun in the 80s and early 90s, but Alex Fong is not Chow Yun Fat, Siu Fei is certainly not Eric Tsang and Owodog is nowhere near as funny or annoying as Nat Cheung. So basically, the result is Summer Love Love failing big time, but at least we got Zhang Xinyu to drool, look and stare at…

Neo rates it 4/10.

• www.thehkneo.com