Rating:

3

AKA: A Moment of Romance 3

Year of release: 1996

Genre: romance

Director: Johnnie To

Producer: Johnnie To

Writers: Sandy Shaw, Yau Nai-Hoi

Editor: Wong Wing-Ming

Cinematography: Poon Hang-Sang

Music: William Hu, Raymond Wong

Stars: Andy Lau, Wu Chien-Lin, Alex Fong, Faan Chi-Gong, Geung Tung, Yue Wing-Jan, Patrick Leung, Eddy Yeung, Chan Mei-Ling, Zhao Yong-Dong

Rated IIA; contains mild language and violence

DVD Information

Company: Mega Star

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Extras: trailers, stars' files

Notes: An early Mei Ah disc - don't get your hopes up for anything much more than average quality.

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A Moment of Romance III

Long-time readers of this site can probably guess that romantic films aren't exactly my cup of tea. But I did enjoy the first two Moment of Romance movies -- even though the weepy melodramatics got a bit over the top at times, at least there was some decent action to keep things interesting. Well, A Moment of Romance III totally ditches the action and ramps up the hankie factor, much to this reviewer's chagrin.

In this installment (which has nothing to do with the previous entries), Andy Lau plays a fighter pilot who is shot down over a small village. Wu Chien-Lin finds him and -- of course -- instantly falls in love while nursing Andy back to health. Andy also has "special" feelings for Wu (who wouldn't?) but the village elders don't like the idea of an "outsider" marrying one of their own, so Andy heads back off to the war. Will the pair reunite and find true love? If you don't know the answer to that, then please do yourself a favor and get off the internet, because obviously you're in need of serious help.

Instead of Benny Chan, Johnnie To took the directorial duties this time out. But there's none of To's trademark style or wit to be had here. This is by-the-books Lifetime network movie of the week romantic crud all the way, complete with several retch-inducing slow-motion musical montages. One of these is puzzingly paired with footage of Wu and Andy beating the hell out of a cow. I guess there's nothing like the feeling of bonding over some animal cruelty to show what true love is all about.

A Moment of Romance III moves at such a glacial pace that even a few frosty ones couldn't help this reviewer from getting extremely bored during the proceedings. Andy Lau's acting didn't help matters any. He was still fully in his stone-faced mode here, and it was impossible to develop any sort of sympathy for his character, and thus any interest in the movie went quickly out of the window. Wu Chien-Lin tries her best, but given the dismal script, she can't really do much other than being the typical "jade vase" seen far too often in these kinds of Hong Kong movies.

Again, watching this sort of fluff isn't exactly my idea of fun, so if you're a huge Andy Lau fan or need something to smooth things over with your girlfirend, then A Moment of Romance III might be worth your time. Otherwise, go and seek out Johnnie To's excellent crime movies from this period for an actual satifying film experience. Probably the only positive thing I can think about this effort is that it was a minor hit (probably due to Andy's star power) and the profits allowed To to create "real" motion pictures instead of snore-inducing pop dreck like this.