I'm Livin' It

"While both films aim to stick to the gritty reality, cheesy happy endings for our two protagonists have no toehold in either, I'M LIVIN' IT falls prey to a lousy script, the faux-utopian camaraderie created by the have-nots is an airy-fairy contrivance, Bowen's tenuous romance with lounge singer Jane (Yeung) is anything but plausible, chemistry is wanting between Kwok and Yeung, Hong Kong's two superstars, whose mutual familiarity gets in the way. Most maddening is the subplot pertaining to Mama (Liu), a young widow, besides rearing her undocumented pre-teen daughter (Gaga Wong, formulaically precocious and cutesy) all by herself, who also voluntarily works her butt off around the clock to shell out the gambling debts of her dead husband's mother (a fierce cameo by Miao), who condemns her as a jinx, and what awaits her is a flagrant poverty porn wielded to extract audience's tears, a self-defeating machination much owing to the ill-conception of soliciting compassion out of abasement, plus a huge waste of Cya Liu, a talented actress from mainland China, who deserves better roles."

read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.