Calling “Lavender” a bad movie would be praising it much too highly. It is a movie in the sense that it is several thousand feet of exposed film but it is largely dully framed and nicely lit shots of extremely attractive people being extremely attractive. Kelly Chen plays Kelly Chen playing a lovelorn aroma therapist while Takeshi Kaneshiro plays Takeshi Kaneshiro playing an angel. There are always problems with depicting disembodied spirits, but in “Lavender” the angel is human in one scene and celestial in the next with not consistency from scene to scene. They weren’t even trying.

Footwear and food are the two main image patterns—other than the whole scent/aromatherapy bit which is more like a sledge hammer pounding things home than an image. The angel loves shoes and acquires scores of pairs but really likes only one pair. Kelly likes to eat—she really loves instant noodles but at the end of the movie is shoveling what looks to be a six egg omelet into her mouth in a couple of bites.

“Lavender” is a romantic comedy that isn’t funny and doesn’t have a trace of human emotion. It does what one would think is impossible, making Hong Kong viewed at night from a few hundred feet in the air look dull. It is little more than a string—a very long string—of shots of the two leads looking gorgeous.

Not recommended.