Cafe de Flore

Do you believe in soul mates? Among various other themes, this film is about the disillusionment of a woman who believes her husband is her soul mate, only to find that he's actually someone else's soul mate, and that the three of them are connected in a totally different and tragic way in the previous life. The present life of these characters is interwoven with the lives of a mother, her son who has Down's syndrome, and a girl he is in love with. The emotional tension between these characters is very powerfully presented, especially the obsessive and possessive love of the mother Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis) towards her son Laurent. It takes some time to understand the plot completely, but it's a very moving and thought-provoking story when you do get it. Though I don't believe in previous and after life, I like the portrayal of the difficulty of letting go, and how by not letting go of this obsessive love it can all turn into tragedy. A very powerful film that takes some time to sink in, but it's worth it.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

I must confess I'm not a big fan of British films, as I've seen quite a handful which are horribly disappointing. But Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is not one of them - and I knew it before seeing it. It's adapted from a book that I wanted to read but never had the time to, but I just know it's not gonna be too bad (and I was right.). Of course, it could be attributed to the fact that the cast is brilliant - I'm not saying big stars guarantee good films, coz a lot of times they don't, but everyone in this one's pretty good. Recommended.

Love in a buff 春嬌與志明

Sequel to Love in a Puff which I also like. Super, super realistic, and super Hong Kong, despite the change of setting from Hong Kong to Beijing. I love how unapologetic it is in depicting the Hong Kong dating reality, as it is a much, much better rendition than the controversial telly 'documentary' Bride Wannabes (盛女愛作戰) about HK spinters recently. There are actually too many similar themes touched upon in both Love in a Buff and Bride Wannabes, but the former succeeds in depicting reality without being crude. After watching the trailer I was pretty upset that while Chi Ming has found a much younger and sexier girlfriend in Beijing, Chun Giu is 'allocated' to a middle-aged bold guy who's far from attractive. But of course that's part of the reality, too, and after seeing the film I think it's totally justified. Of course, it's still sad...

While Love in a Buff is realistic in depicting the cruelty in the HK dating scene, the ending is still, in my opinion, borderline fantasy. *Spoiler alert* The fact that Chi Ming goes back to Chun Giu isn't realistic at all, and I dare say it doesn't happen 99.99999% of the time in such cases. Love is all it counts and age and looks don't matter? ... Dream on!

A Tale of Two Cities @ Charing Cross Theatre

This was SO. GOOD.

We all know Charles Dickens' famous work which depicts selfless love, but it's still a very enjoyable musical rendition even if you know the story by heart. The music's really moving and all the singers are great! I wish they had a programme or a CD though, but I didn't see anything on sale at the theatre apart from icecream... I'm not one for buying programmes at theatres but I really like this one! I would be really happy if they have a CD with all the songs in the musical on sale!

Highly recommended!