Um Momento de Romance

This movie had impact, and to this day is one of my (if not the) favorite Hong Kong movie. Andy Lau is an orphan motor bike gangster but ends up taking Jin Lin Wu hostage while attempted robbery. he's ordered by his boss to kill her because she can identify them, but Andy Lau refuses. It turns out that Jin Lin Wu is an only daughter of a wealthy family. They feel the connection from the get go and Jin Lin Wu tries to find Andy Lau after she's returned safely to home. sound's like a typical guy who has nothing meets girl who has everything story, but there's more to this movie than that. I was so affected by this movie that I almost went out and bought a motorcycle after seeing this movie.

Everybody says this movie is great, and there must be a reason for it. Acting is top notch, script is great (so great that two more movies by the same title followed), and introduced now famous actor Jin Lin Wu to the world.

It's one of the best Hong Kong movie ever made, and you'll be left with a bitter sweet taste after seeing it. Truly awesome movie classic.

I was lucky enough to pick this film up in Vancouver, and I am glad I did. This is one of the best foreign films I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot. This movie plays out like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. Andy Lau is a gangster who falls in love with a good-girl. This age-old formula is applied very well however, and is played out brilliantly. This film is by turns beautiful, violent, energetic, contemplative, and heart-breaking. The violence is visceral and unflinching, and the film is rooted strongly in reality. Andy Lau turns in his career-making performance and the female lead is excellent as well. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is looking for a well-made Hong Kong flick.

A surprising gem that reaches the highest standard of genre storytelling, pushing its limits into the realm of true art, that which challenges AND moves its viewer. It may be Andy Lau Tak-wah's best role to date. The plot involves gangster Lau's affair with a young rich girl. The melodrama however, quickly reveals itself as the profile of a man desperate to salvage the last scrap of his own moral code. The foolish but romantic character of the upper class teenaged May is best seen as the flesh and blood manifestation of Lau's secret wish for a clean, happy life that he can never have. She represents his own moral potential that could never have flowered in a life devoid of family love and filled instead with poverty, corruption and desperation. Rising just enough above his fellow gangsters to know that he has missed something precious, he recognizes his own lost innocence in the young girl he has taken hostage. His gang brothers demand that he kill her. But, unable to overcome the last vestige of decency left in him. He lets her go instead. This choice, this one act of honor has profound unforseeable consequences for his life and his character. This film delivers hard boiled action, a fragile love story and and a pithy character study for Lau. It explores the personal cost of embracing moral action, the responsibilities of caring and ultimately asks what defines a worthy life. (from Andylausound)

One of the most imitated and popular Hong Kong productions of the 90s, A Moment of Romance sees a modern-day Romeo and Juliet-style tale under the veil of contemporary underground Triad warfare, far more than a teenybopper romantic fantasy. In many ways the film is responsible for many a cliché within its industry; a disaffected youth, the good girl romantic interest and a cartoonish villain, however, it's the way these clichés are all assembled within the film that makes it so memorable. "Director" Benny Chan has his way with the clichés and throws in enough slow motion, syrupy Cantopop music video montages and hyperemotional crescendos to tax even the weepiest audience member. The core emotions that the film mines are so innately compelling that they're not lost beneath bombastic montages or sudden flashes of gangland violence. It's often stated this was heavily ghost-directed by Johnnie To and it's not hard to see why, so much of the film carries many of his later stylings. The film works because it is a consciously chosen cinematic style and is used without fear with all available means with the superb cast all delivering perfect performances to compliment. Andy Lau brings righteous anger and hidden tenderness to an exceptional genre character. What's so compelling about the character and the performance is that Wah Dee acts and very rarely talks. His decisions have believable and compelling consequences with the affirmation of Dee's morality coming with a price, and only one outcome is truly possible. Put simply, A Moment of Romance has it all; fiery action, sweeping cinematography, an unforgettable love story and beautiful chemistry, quick-witted humour, a beautiful score and more. The film triumphs, not despite its genre excess, but perhaps because of it.

Andy is soooo handsome! Maybe it's always so hard when you chase something that doesn't fit you...