Yuen fan

When people speak of the Shaw Brothers film studio they're usually discussing their run of outstanding martial arts movies which really are second to none. However, people do forget that Shaw dabbled in other genres, including spy films, gangster thrillers, comedies, family dramas, and yes, romance. BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE is a Hong Kong romantic comedy focused around that region's newly-opened subway system.

I should make it clear now that I despite romantic comedies on the whole. They're the opposite of what I go for in the cinema. Saying that, BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE is a pretty good example of its genre, and a film that even I enjoyed on occasion. I watched it mainly to see the three cast members in early roles: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Mui, and all are good value. Leslie Cheung is far from the doomed and tragic persona he would become, instead playing a likeably geeky part. Maggie Cheung is the love interest and paves the way for later fare like POLICE STORY and even IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. Anita Mui is as spunky as ever and shows some of the great personality that would make her a driving force in both Hong Kong cinema and music.

The film is fast-paced and made with the usual painstaking attention to detail that characterised many a Shaw movie. There's plenty of humour here to go with the romance, my particular favourite moment being the madcap, sped-up driving test through the streets of the city. My dislike of the genre as a whole is the only thing that prevents me from rating this film more highly.