Li Xian-Jun (Leon Lai from City Hunter) is a mainlander arriving in Hong Kong to earn enough money for the wedding between him and his girl back home, Xiao-Ting (Kristy Yeung from Portland Street Blues). Without any knowledge of the cantonese dialect he has a hard time getting on in the city. This changes when he meets fellow mainlander Li Chiao (Maggie Cheing from Heroic Trio). Both are alone and become close friends, something that leads to a romantic relationship. Realizing the potential risk for Li Xian-Jun, Li Chiao decides to part ways but a few years later they bump into each other again...

Peter Chan's film is almost epic because it takes place over a period of 10 years (1986-1996). During that time and the running time, he tells a highly simple but low key romantic drama of the highest quality. Even if I personally don't believe there's only one love for every person, there's no doubt that the characters played by Leon and Maggie are right for each other. The tagline on Mei Ah's dvd cover just says everything and still very little about the movie:

'This is not so much a story about people falling in love, but rather of two young hearts trying their best not to fall in love with each other'.

Starting with Ivy Ho's script, it is in all it's simplicity a boy meets girl-story but just like her Anna Magdalena-script (that the art director, on this movie, Hai Chung Man directed) it's about real people like you and me. It's still a movie romance but nothing in the charactertraits feels exaggerated or unrealistic to me. Paul Thomas Anderson once said that if you do your job in the writing then the movie is almost done! Ivy Ho couldn't have provided Peter Chan with a better blueprint going into making Comrades. The long story and it's events are clearly laid out and the only thing I find negative is certain convenient plot points in the script, mainly that both Li Xian-Jin and Li Chiao end up in New York. On the other hand Ivy and Peter probably makes the point that the right thing for you may be closer than you think.

Peter may have a great script on his hands but making it fully work in pictures is a big challenge in itself. He concentrates on directing what's truly THE thing that carries the movie, actors Leon Lai and Maggie Cheung. There must lie believability in the feelings between them and Peter takes on and succeeds making that happen. Comrades is not a subtle film but it stays away from over the top melodramatics. Peter finds other, more effective, ways to handle drama which may leave viewers, expecting a weepie, underwhelmed. You may still be underwhelmed for a while afterwards but you'll no doubt know that few movies achieves this level of greatness.

The heart of Comrades is of course the two comrades, Li Xian-Jun & Li Chiao and from the moment they meet we're hooked on the movie, even in scenes where they don't know each other. This is the point where Leon and Maggie must bring starpower to captivate us in a right away. Leon Lai has already charmed by the point he meets up with Maggie but her entrance is just mind-blowing. Not that it's a special scene or anything (Li Xian-Jun trying to order a hamburger from her) but there's no denying what a moviestar Magge is. It's been a long time since I've seen any movie with her and I'd completely forgotten how beautiful she is. All this glow around her may've taken one out of the movie but she quickly erases all thoughts that we're seeing Maggie not Li Chiao. Her character has clearly done a better job disguising her mainland heritage than Li Xiao-Jun. In the beginning he's almost like a kid enthusiastically discovering things for the first time and it's up to Li Chiao to adjust him to life in the Hong Kong city.

Then we get to see obligatory scenes of two friends becoming two very good friends. Simplicity is the keyword here and what makes the bicycle scene great is not because of camera direction, lightning or sound but just the fact that these two actors ARE their respective characters. As they grow on each other Peter starts to create just the right touches for the romance or important plot points. I will not go through each special scene one by one but the very first romantic scene is worth mentioning. It takes place amidst the lunar new year celebrations and they've both reached a stage where they know there's something in the air but neither wants to take the first step. Then comes the moment when they first touch hands which leads in to a wonderful scene that is expected and unexpected. Throughout Comrades Peter doesn't miss the beats that need to be there and this is something that runs all the way through up to the closure of our story. Also an interesting thing is that Comrades serves as a source of information for those not familiar with certain aspects of China/Hong Kong, in particular the big gap between the different dialects (cantonese and mandarin) and the people. Li Xiao-Jun does not know a bit of cantonese and people almost seem to look down on mainlanders because of something like that.. Peter doesn't turn it into a moral lesson but integrates it so we get to know but are still with the flow of the film. There's also mentions of worry regarding the 1997 handover and the real life Asian financial crisis also affects the characters.

Looking at the all the received awards you understand that other aspects of Comrades are done well. I rarely mention Costume & Make Up Design but veteran Dora Ng's work deserves some space. The characters aren't aging rapidly but Dora still needs to make sure to create subtle changes that takes place over the years. Surely the actors provide much support but we're convinced of them growing and maturing, even if their appearances doesn't change a whole lot over the course of the film. Another veteran lends his eye to the production and that is cinematographer Jingle Ma. He once again blends his look with the story in a way that you rarely think about the camera, which is often a sign of a good looking movie. Cheng Tsang Hei's score has one component in particular that lends itself very well to the romance genre and that is the use of a single piano. It suits very well with a calm atmosphere. Some of Teresa Tang's songs are baked into the plot so there's the occasional ballad from her as well.

I've mentioned the superb work from our main actors but the supporting cast must not be forgotten. Award winner Eric Tsang (from Infernal Affairs) plays a triad boss that Li Chiao falls for and while his triad life is made part of the movie, we see more glimpses of his humanity and sweetness (in his own triad way). He doesn't get much screentime but makes good use of it. Kristy Yeung turn as the fiancee of Li Xian-Jun nicely mirrors Leon Lai's acting, as she is also very upbeat about experiencing a city she's never seen.

Comrades, Almost A Love Story deserves all the recognition it's received. It's one of the finest examples of the genre but Mabel Cheung's An Autumn's Tale will always be the number 1 Hong Kong romance for me. Both should be in every Hong Kong movie fans collection though.

The mind thus boggles to think that the only way that Peter Chan managed to get this project green-lighted by the powers-that-be was to agree to commit to making a sequel to his economically successful “He’s a Woman, She’s a Man”, AND shoot COMRADES, ALMOST A LOVE STORY at the same time as “Who’s the Woman, Who’s the Man?” (See Miles Wood’s “Cine East” interview with Peter Chan, 1998:20). It is not much less shocking to read reports that this production’s allocated budget was so small that Maggie Cheung’s substantial -- by Hong Kong movie standards -- salary for this film ended up being partly paid from out of the director’s pocket (This act says so much about Chan’s commitment to the movie, and also his estimation of the actress).

One of the most amazing things about the movie makers of the so-called Eastern Hollywood though is that even with the significant commercial pressures, budget constraints and temporal limits imposed on them, so much -- and so much of it good -- can be produced. Indeed, when one beholds works like “Chungking Express” and COMRADES, ALMOST A LOVE STORY, one almost wonders whether the ideal condition for producing filmic gems is to make extra demands on recognized creative talents and thereby bring about “small” yet “deep” movies that are distillations of their genius. It must undoubtedly help that for this particular work, director Chan was able to call on the considerable talents of such as the Magster (who at that point had newly returned from a two year sabbatical during which she had done such as travel the world incognito) and Eric Tsang (a founding partner of UFO who has directing, producing and scriptwriting along with acting credits galore to his name). Still, he deserves praise for getting very effective performances out of a Cantopop “sky king” (Leon Lai), the man best known as Wong Kar Wai’s usual cinematographer (Christopher Doyle) and a young film debut-maker (Kristie Yeung).

As it stands, COMRADES, ALMOST A LOVE STORY is an amazingly touching offering; one which, in the wrong hands, could have been really melodramatically overwrought and/or trite. We are, after all, talking about a film whose disarmingly simple main story is about a rather naive man (the initially unfamiliar-with-escalators-even Li Xiao-Jun is well played by Leon Lai) and a generally pragmatic woman (Maggie Cheung IS the enterprising Li Chiao) who come to know and appreciate each other -- as well as themselves -- in Hong Kong.

This duo’s modest tale -- and the film -- is enriched as well as complicated by Li Xiao-Jun’s having an aunt (Irene Tsu is charming in this small but not insignificant role) who is in love with William Holden (yes, the American star of “Love is a Many Splendoured Thing”), a hometown sweetheart (who comes in the agreeable form of Kristie Yeung) and a few itinerant friends (including a Thai prostitute and an Australian English teacher), along with Li Chiao getting involved at some point in the film with another man (Pao is portrayed by Eric Tsang, who manages to make a convincing case for how someone who looks like him could be a serious romantic competitor to a looker like Leon Lai). Such disparate cultural icons as Teresa Teng (the movie’s Chinese title is derived from the name of one of her popular songs), the golden arches of MacDonalds and Mickey Mouse also have parts to play in this production which was shot on location in New York as well as Hong Kong (I am not sure which is a more surreal sight: Leon Lai’s riding a bicycle on the streets of the Big Apple or Maggie Cheung’s standing behind the counter of a Hong Kong MacDonalds outlet...).

Although COMRADES, ALMOST A LOVE STORY’s story spans quite a bit of time (about ten years) as well as connects together what may otherwise seem like vastly disparate physical and cultural space, it truly is by no means a sprawling film. Rather, matters and things get personalized; and it is the sometimes whimsical, other times moving, always humanizing details which really “make” this movie. A Mickey Mouse tattoo, chicken feet, ATM machines, hoarded souvenirs from a meal at the Peninsula Hotel, and swim trunks worn as underwear: These are some of the items that will be seen to be capable of containing and evoking heartfelt feelings and memories after viewing this sweet offering with the excellent ending (and I include in my praise Leon Lai’s rendition of the movie’s theme song as the end credits roll!) that leaves the (re)viewer with -- in the words of one Hong Kong Film Critics Society member -- “the most profound aftertaste”.