Reviewed by: Stephe Date: 01/27/2011 Three Cathay stars representing three very different personas and bodies of work are represented in Between Tears and Laughter. Wang Lai plays a divorced woman with a young son, Helen Li Mei plays a novelist scared of new relationships, and Kitty Ting Hao plays a perky girl anxious to meet her Singaporean penpal, played by Roy Chiao. Having Li Mei and Ting Hao in the same film is a disorienting experience, and having Wang Lai play a peer to these two women adds to the disorientation. This is the first time I'd really gotten a good taste of Kitty Ting Hao because her role was so small in Mambo Girl, and I was not too taken with her here because she is way too snippy with her ardent, ingenuous suitor, Tin Ching (who is also her boss at work), on account of being hung up on the penpal whom she has yet to meet. Li Mei's introduction in this film is highly unglamorous as we first see her asleep in bed with a relative lack of -- or at least unflattering -- makeup. Wang Li's estranged husband is played very straight by Shaw Brothers regular Yeung Chi-Hing, whom she encounters while visiting her young son who has been in the hospital with polio for a year. While all three women work through anguished situations by the time the film ends, I felt especially bad for Li Mei's character, and was gratified when her situation changed for the better. It's this portion of the film that I enjoyed most, since I like Li Mei quite a bit. Reviewer Score: 6