Happy Birthday (2007)
Reviewed by: dandan on 2007-06-21
Summary: to you...
mei (rene liu) and nam (louis koo) are highschool sweethearts who seperated when they went to study at different universities; mei studies music (more specifically, the piano) and nam studies business. law and accounting. they are a couple who are perfectly matched, but mei has difficulty feeling secure in their relationship; this is partly due to her childhood and partly due to nam's popularity with the opposite sex.

despite the fact that they are often apart for years at a time, studying or working, the two always make a point of wishing each other a happy bithday, sending each other sms messages, email and voicemail. when the pair are together, things always go smoothly and mei's father (richard ng) and their friends (bowie tsang and lawrence chou) can't see why they don't stay together...

the film, based on rene liu's short novel, with a screenplay by sylvia chang, is a classy affair; with direction and cinematography from jingle ma and a nicely understated score from chiu tsang-hei. besides looking and sounding great, louis koo and, in particular, rene liu are great; as is richard ng and it's great to see him back on screen, being given the chance to act.

the narrative sweeps back and fourth across fifteen years, gently painting a bittersweet portrait of the relationship between mei and nam; by maintaining the birthday motif, this works particularly well and avoids becoming a mess of seemingly unrelated vignettes.

a solid production of a well constructed, engaging narrative, with a script that has drama and humour, which looks and sounds great, performed by a cast who do a fine job.

good stuff...