Film Review: A Moment of Romance

Early Andy Lau Classic:

This is a movie I have been meaning to watch for over ten years. This is an early film in the career of one of my favorite actors Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs, House of Flying Daggers). This movie is an interesting entry in the 90’s Hong Kong action genre sometimes referred to as Heroic Bloodshed. I sometimes call this subgenre Guns and gangsters that are known for classics like John Woo’s Hard Boiled or more recently Johnnie To’s Election.

This film was directed by Benny Chan who went on to direct several Jackie Chan movies and glitzy action films like Gen X Cops. This early film in his career is produced by Johnnie To (Election) and Ringo Lam (City of Fire,Full Contact).

This movie starts strong on the action front starting with a jewelry heist that ends with Andy Lau’s character taking a woman hostage. The first half of the movie is typical Hong Kong action, with Andy Lau rocking a Suzuki crotch rocket, as funny and dated as this looks it is fun stuff. The second half of the movie turns up the romance and melodrama. It is a pretty effective story all in all.

This movie is dated, so unless you are serious fan of 80s/90s Hong Kong movies or Andy Lau I would not suggest you seek this out. I am a fan of both so I enjoyed it.