Your Place Or Mine (1998)

Tony Leung is Cheung Suk-Wai, a famous image designer who finds love a minefield. His curse: to create female media idols and fall in love with them – only to be dumped when they become more famous than he. His newest project is cute mainlander Ah Yu (Vivian Hsu), who he resists before succumbing to. He simultaneously becomes attracted to his strict new boss Vivian (Ada Choi), who is rumored to be a lesbian. Meanwhile, best pal Patrick (Alex Fong) finds himself questioning his player lifestyle when he falls for his longtime friend Mei (Suki Kwan). As is typical with these sitcom UFO set-ups, the plot gets resolved with wit, insight, and plentiful metaphor. This is a well-written and well-acted piece of HK entertainment that is reminiscent of Yuen’s past scripts, as well as the work of US auteur Woody Allen. In particular, the film seems to share a link to the 1993 UFO film Tom, Dick, and Hairy. Both films deal with the male experience of romance, and both films leave their issues fully explored but ultimately ambiguous. It’s refreshing to find a well-written commercial HK film that’s as thoroughly enjoyable as this one. After too many seemingly dour roles, Tony Leung rebounds with an inspired comic performance. Equally good is Alex Fong, who shows range as the pathetically likable Patrick. On the other hand, Vivian Hsu’s performance hurts the film, though it may be a fault of her idealized character, which is an otaku’s pin-up girl fantasy. More credit should be given to …