Only Fools Fall in Love (1995)
Reviewed by: hkcinema on 1999-12-08
Only three new Hong Kong directors have surpassed my expectationswith their first efforts during the last two years. Guk Tak-Chiu is one of them. "Only Fools Fall in Love" is a fairly ordinary story - a wealthy, intelligent but mean-spirited man loses his vast fortune and intellect in a family struggle. In exchange he found love and just perhaps - how to be a better person. However, Guk and Lee's surprisingly intelligent and solid screenplay makes it different from the norm Hong Kong comedy. Early in the film, we saw how Chiu Fok (Lau Ching-Wan) achieved mastery in every situation through his superior intellect. As Chiu Fok before his impairment, Lau turned in a charismatic performance. His character is amazingly intelligent but deplorably self-centred. In normal circumstances Lau would have gotten praise just for playing the `foolish' Fok - but since he is so impressive as the `smart' Fok, the `fool' appears wan in comparison. Ng Sin-Lin gave a strong performance (certainly her best in a costume role) as the smart, tough and opportunistic Mong Dee with just the right degree of tenderness. The screen affinity between her and Lau has never been better. Instead of his usual evil roles, Yuen Wah is endearing and comical as Dee's greedy father (also showing some of his acrobatic skills in the film.) Wong Chi-Wah managed to inject a sense of bottled-up frustration into his role as Jack - a man taunted into attempted fratricide. After years of `Moleitau' conditioning it is refreshing to see a Hong Kong comedy where the characters are of uniform high intelligence and the humour is driven by the wit of the script as much as the comic performance. For a first timer, Guk's direction is generally competent. Guk did not waste his time by being pretentious or stylish - the film is visually pleasing on big screen - with the right look of authenticity. Despite only moderately budgeted, the production quality of this film is high. My feeling is Guk has set out to entertain in "Only Fools Fall in Love" with a smart script - and is successful. The story is predictable but in getting there, the audience is rarely bored. Despite its title, this film doesn't treat its audience as `fools'. Instead, it is a funny and engrossing comedy drama.

(7.5/10)



[Reviewed by Christopher Fu]