I wanted to love this movie because Hong Kong was portrayed so beautifully. They got a lot of aspects of Hong Kong right, but the two main characters had no chemistry and the acting was so bad it was distracting.
The script, assuming this drivel wasn't all ad-libbed, was contrived and unimaginative. First of all, the guy, Josh, was in finance and the girl, Ruby, encourages him to "follow his dream" of becoming a writer. Why do the villagers all have their pitchforks out for bankers? It's low hanging fruit. He wants to be a writer, but for someone who minored in English lit, his grammar is atrocious. What if his dream is to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world and not have to sell his blood to live?
So Josh, on the advice of a girl he met once, quits his cushy bank job and decides to write full time. Paying rent in Hong Kong is tough even on a banker's salary. I hope he saved a lot of those bonus checks, so he can afford to be an unemployed writer in one of the most expensive cities in the world. He's so much cooler, though, what with the hipstery beard and plaid shirt and all.
I noticed a few technical aspects which were probably dramatic license. The night they first meet, Josh offers to show Ruby to Lan Kwai Fong, which is 10 minutes away. The way he took her was the complete opposite direction and the escalator only goes up at night so they couldn't have taken it to Lan Kwai Fong. They even threw in a shot of a tram which is not even close to where they were going. Was he being creepy taking her the long way or was it for scenic effect?
I gave it 4/10 because the Hong Kong scenery looked gorgeous. I have to give the filmmakers credit for making the Temple Street Night Market actually look like fun instead of a vast assortment of cheap tourist crap. Another transit issue, they went through all that to find a taxi to HK Island when the fast, cheap MTR is right there. That's probably because the MTR is not nearly as cozy and romantic a setting in which to decide whether or not you are cheating on your significant other. BTW, if you have to keep a relationship secret, you are.
As a love letter to Hong Kong, this works. As a love story, it falls flat. I would watch it again, only this time with the sound off.
The script, assuming this drivel wasn't all ad-libbed, was contrived and unimaginative. First of all, the guy, Josh, was in finance and the girl, Ruby, encourages him to "follow his dream" of becoming a writer. Why do the villagers all have their pitchforks out for bankers? It's low hanging fruit. He wants to be a writer, but for someone who minored in English lit, his grammar is atrocious. What if his dream is to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world and not have to sell his blood to live?
So Josh, on the advice of a girl he met once, quits his cushy bank job and decides to write full time. Paying rent in Hong Kong is tough even on a banker's salary. I hope he saved a lot of those bonus checks, so he can afford to be an unemployed writer in one of the most expensive cities in the world. He's so much cooler, though, what with the hipstery beard and plaid shirt and all.
I noticed a few technical aspects which were probably dramatic license. The night they first meet, Josh offers to show Ruby to Lan Kwai Fong, which is 10 minutes away. The way he took her was the complete opposite direction and the escalator only goes up at night so they couldn't have taken it to Lan Kwai Fong. They even threw in a shot of a tram which is not even close to where they were going. Was he being creepy taking her the long way or was it for scenic effect?
I gave it 4/10 because the Hong Kong scenery looked gorgeous. I have to give the filmmakers credit for making the Temple Street Night Market actually look like fun instead of a vast assortment of cheap tourist crap. Another transit issue, they went through all that to find a taxi to HK Island when the fast, cheap MTR is right there. That's probably because the MTR is not nearly as cozy and romantic a setting in which to decide whether or not you are cheating on your significant other. BTW, if you have to keep a relationship secret, you are.
As a love letter to Hong Kong, this works. As a love story, it falls flat. I would watch it again, only this time with the sound off.