Yau ching yam shui baau

Skinflint businessman Richard (Leung) doesn't feel bad when he sacks his employees and secretary to cut unnecessary costs. He also doesn't bat an eyelid when his gold-digging girlfriend leaves after he refuses to give her money. She gets her revenge by cancelling his credit cards and giving away his furniture.

Suddenly destitute, he's forced to rely on the generosity of Choi (Shu Qi - lovely as always), a good Samaritan who helps him out even though she thinks he's a scumbag who makes a habit of cheating women out of money.

When Choi wants him to repay her by pretending to be her boyfriend, to throw off the unwanted advances of her father's choice of husband, Richard starts to see the appeal in stringing women along for money.

If you're watching this purely because it stars Leung and/or Shu Qi, you're not going to be too disappointed. They're a charismatic pair and their chemistry is good, and there are enough genuinely funny scenes to satisfy the 'com' part of the genre. The 'rom' side is handled strictly by the numbers. The leads are backed up in fine fashion by Theresa Mak and Yuk Fei Wong. Anyone who remembers the latter's singing prowess in Shaolin Soccer may be happy to learn he bursts into song in this one, too.

If you have to rely on subtitles (like I do), unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a good version of this flick available. I first watched a Chinese import copy a few years back which was almost indecipherable, and recently 'upgraded' to the Tai Seng version currently on sale in the UK. The subs were better, but disappeared way too fast and were still riddled with bad spelling and grammar. The film also seemed to drop frames, or even whole seconds in places. A shame.

It would be hard to think of a film more predictable than "Love Me Love My Money," and yet it manages to be an enjoyable film, mainly because the characters look like they would be fun to hang out with. Tony Leung, who is an excellent actor and usually appears in serious films, hams it up as the stingy but handsome and charismatic billionaire, and manages some pretty funny lines. One gets the feeling that Shu Qi is playing herself, or at least an earlier version of herself, and she is good at it. Who would not want to know, or at least look at, such a beautiful and charming woman, even if she is rather slow to catch on to things, and her voice can be a little shrill? Theresa Mak is amusing and appealing as Shu Qi's vamp sidekick. The film slows down at the end with the obligatory montage of wistful looks, set to schmaltzy music, and the boring last scene, which is neither funny nor believable - either one would have sufficed.

When you're rich, it's hard to find out if someone loves you for who you are or they're enamored with your status and wealth. Richard in this story tries to clear the difference.

Richard (Tony Leung) and Tom are friends and business associates. They are millionaires, but has hard time finding love. One day at a snake restaurant, they meet Choi (Shu Qi) and Chloroform, two girls who came to eat, but had to share the table. Later that night by coincidence, Richard and Tom meet Choi and Chloroform at a bar. They start to get acquainted with each other. Richard hides from Choi the fact that he's rich. He goes out of his way to make himself look ordinary, until Choi discovers Richard talking to Tom on a video talking about how Richard was pretending to be poorer than he is. Choi is furious, and decides to break up with Richard.

In the end, Richard's attempt to make himself poor didn't matter. He was showing Choi a very good time only a millionaire can. So it was natural that Choi would fall for Richard. If Richard didn't show Choi good time, it's doubtful that he would have succeeded in getting Choi. So it seems that Richard wasn't 100% successful in cutting himself off from the influence of his own money.

Wong Jin sticks to his lavish style where all the people who appears in his story looks like they're from high society. The story is as usual, geared to entertain, but this one, the focus was not so clear. Movie is of good quality, but the story is weak compared to other Wong Jin's movies.

The first half of "Love Me, Love My Money" is mildly amusing romcom fare. The second half I didn't see having abandoned the DVD because what I was seeing was not worth the effort required to read the subtitles. I've watched many subtitled films and this flick probably has the worst I've seen. The font is small, the translation poor and verbose, and the subtitles aren't stacked to allow for longer on-screen durations but delivered one line at a time requiring a lot speed reading with eyes fixed at the bottom of the screen. The result is a lot of pausing to be able to catch the humor buried in the dialogue (no sight gags), watch the facial expression, etc. Remember, if you watch this dialogue-intensive film with someone else (Non-Chinese speakers) you'll only be able to watch as fast as the slowest reader.

"Love Me, Love My Money" ("Yau Ching Yam Shui Baau") is basically your average romantic-comedy, but still it is quite a good movie, especially because it has a very good story, but better yet, it has an amazing ensemble of actors and actresses on the list.

The story in "Love Me, Love My Money" is multi-millionaire Richard Ma (played by Tony Leung) returning to Hong Kong from New York and hooks up with his long time friend Tom (played by Ka Tung Lam). Richard breaks up with his money-obsessed girlfriend and she cleans out his apartment and managed to block all of his credit cards and report his ID card stolen, effectively rendering Richard stuck without money. Richard is a super stingy person and tries to save money everywhere he can, and being forced into buying late dinner for two ladies, Choi (played by Shu Qi) and Chloroform (played by Teresa Mak). Unable to pay for it, Richard have to borrow money from Choi. Things start to escalate as Richard's fate seems to be bound to Choi and they keep meeting one another in the most unlikely of places. Choi doesn't like Richard and thinks he is scum, while Richard is drawn to Choi's seemingly lack of greed for his wealth and fame.

The story actually works out quite well, because it is believable and funny, and it is really helped along by some great hilarious situations and of course the great acting by Tony Leung and Shu Qi, but also helped well along the way by supporting actor Ka Tung Lam and actress Teresa Mak. There is such a great chemistry between Tony Leung and Shu Qi, as there also was in "Seoul Raiders", and they really work well together on the screen and compliment one another quite nicely. But also the feisty chemistry between Ka Tung Lam and Teresa Mak was really great and added a lot of charismatic flavor to the movie.

Sure, "Love Me, Love My Money" is a fairly average run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, but it is just that one step ahead of most others in the same genre. So if you enjoy romantic comedies, then you definitely have to treat yourself to "Love Me, Love My Money", don't let a small fact like it is a Hong Kong movie or in Cantonese language scare you off. Movies are meant to be watched and enjoyed in their original language.

I was surprised by this movie, and am quite glad that I purchased it from Amazon and added it to my collection. It is well deserving movie in any Hong Kong cinema aficionado's DVD collection.