"Almost a Love Story" is known as a classic among the Asian countries, not just China or Hong Kong. However, I somehow missed watching it until 2014(!) perhaps because I was not too eager to see yet another uninspiring romantic comedy, which seems to have been the norm for quite some time now in the cinema world. After seeing every combination of the romantic comedy formula for years, I did not expect much out of "Almost," which admittedly has plenty of its own cliché's and coincidences. But despite those, the movie still manages to be achingly beautiful and heart-taxingly stark in its depiction of the human condition. This movie may especially shock the Westerners who are used to "clean" and neat romantic love stories. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it as soon as possible.

"TMM" is also known as "Comrades: Almost a Love Story." The Chinese title comes from a famous song by Teresa Tang, a Taiwanese singer who is important to the movie. In terms of plot, this movie is essentially a very focused/HK version of Forrest Gump, so the two major characters keep bumping into each other at very particular moments (more on that in a moment). Basically, there is an HK bias against those who come from the Mainland, and Mainlanders like Teresa Tang, so the characters' love(s) for the song is emblematic of how various characters deal with the transition from the Mainland to HK: picture a very nuanced version of city mouse/country mouse, complete with a different language. The movie basically will give some indication of when a scene is taking place, then segue to another scene. So, the fact that one character is making a killing means that this is a time when the HK stock market was booming, or people were worried about the handover, or the stockmarket crashed. Knowing that these characters are about to go through something that everyone in HK experienced adds a new level of meaning to the very, very good dialogue. There is a great twist at the end that places every scene in perspective, but spoilers are evil. Backstory: Leon Lai plays the male lead; he is essentially a one man Chinese Backstreet Boy. The gangster is played by a mainstay of HK movies. Maggie Cheung is one of the most beautiful and talented actresses in the world, so seeing her portraying a McDonald's clerk is amazing. An English instructor is played by Christopher Doyle, the cinematographer for "Days of Being Wild," "Happy Together," and "Hero,"

This film is essentially about a guy that falls in love with a girl in a foreign place, somehow marries a former lover and in the end loses it all (well almost all). The first half of the film is mainly about the relationship development between the two "comrades". Since I am not a fan of either actor to me it seems to drag on for quite some time on specific details (one about a very popular singer) which would prove to be significant later on. Chinese in their thirties should relate to some of the historical events. All the sentimental stuff happens in the second half, some perhaps on the least likely of characters. As usual Maggie Cheung is brilliant with her subtle brand of acting. In my point of view, the circumstances where the two surviving characters meet again sporadically after splitting up seem somewhat far-fetched but so sweet you should give them a break. In general it manages to avoid pointless sentiment, innocous humor and yet comes up with a bittersweet ending that is dramatic yet humble. I like "The Umbrella Story" from last year more because it is much gushier and there is more going on (more characters to relate to) but I could understand if an older audience said this movie had better taste.

The film deals with an every-day subject that lots of films have dealt with so far: boy meets girl. So many people might tend to say "It's always the same with that kind of stories", but in this case they are wrong. This film is simply lovely. Everything is there. The rough meeting, the soft touch, the first realization, the despair in the rain, the slight hope, the fate's sign and finally the supernatural power of emotions. All this with Hongkong and New York - two of the most exciting cities in the world - as background and casted with the outstanding actress Maggie Cheung who I'd love to see more often in the cinema.There might be bigger love stories, but for those two hours you watch this film the most beautiful love story comes from Hongkong.