A Moment of Romance

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)