Love Off the Cuff
Description
Pang Ho-cheung’s finale to his Love trilogy depicts Jimmy and Cherie at a pivotal stage in their relationship—where living together, rather than cementing their connection, instead brings personal idiosyncrasies to the fore. After their stint in Beijing (depicted in Love in the Buff, HKC 2012), they’ve returned to a cramped Hong Kong apartment where Cherie obsesses about her age while Jimmy spends too much money on random junk. Both of them are assiduously avoiding discussion about marriage and children. When Cherie’s crass father shows up and then a sexually forthright childhood friend of Jimmy’s comes to stay, the couple’s rift grows wider, and a break-up seems imminent. As with the two prior entries in the series, the film is full of double entendre chuckles, but there’s also a mature sensibility here about how relationships can fray. In the central roles, Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue continue to display their irresistible chemistry and are supported by a stream of amusing and noteworthy cameos. With musical sequences, a ribald Greek chorus of Cherie’s beauty-industry chums, and an opening fantasy sequence involving a monster named Gat Gat Gong, director Pang mixes genres and styles to extremely entertaining ends.
Pang Ho-cheung, born in Hong Kong in 1973, is perhaps best known as a director, though he’s also a novelist, playwright, newspaper columnist, and actor. He wrote the novel Fulltime Killer, which was adapted into a very successful feature film in 2001. SFFILM has premiered many of his films throughout the years, including all three of the Love films and his family drama Aberdeen (HKC 2014). He is scheduled to make his first English-language film in 2018 based on Etgar Keret’s story “Lieland.”
Film Details
Language Cantonese, Putonghua
Year 2017
Runtime 120
Country Hong Kong
Director Pang Ho-cheung
Writer Pang Ho-cheung, Jimmy Wan, Luk Yee-sum
Editor Wenders Li
Cinematographer Chou Yi-hsien
Music Alan Wong, Janet Yung, Peter Chan
Cast Miriam Yeung, Shawn Yue, Paul Chun
Print Source Media Asia Film Distribution (HK)