Hilarious meet-cutes put rich boy Louis (played by Leslie CHEUNG) and his cousin Kathy in touch with an itinerant wild girl named Tomato and a roughneck named Pong. After a courtship conducted amidst consumerism and a craze for Japanese culture, it feels as if time slows down and erotic pleasures expand for the quartet but the chaos of the world cannot be held at bay as a disturbing conclusion awaits.

In a genre defying work, Patrick TAM uses romance, melodrama, comedy, and high aesthetic visuals to give viewers a sensual and slightly camp take on Hong Kong during the island’s halcyon days. The looks and lust of the film mask an undercurrent of nihilism and constant questions of islander identity in relation to the rest of the world but he never loses his sense of humour and flair for the dramatic and how to use cinematic language to create a rich and romantic atmosphere. [Jason MAHER]