| Cop Lau (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) witnesses his long time partner (Kent Cheng in a cameo) commit suicide t in front of him, leading to him moving and working on small time cases in order to deal with this loss. His neighbor Hiu Tung (Veronica Yip) is a single mother struggling to find a footing in life and men only seems to want to be with her for casual reasons. When her father passes away, she makes a commitment to step away from any loose lifestyle and helping along is neighbor Lau. Eventually love is in the air and both now has to overcome issues of trust and commitment...
For Tony Au's streak of movies during the 90s, he utilized Tony Leung Ka-Fai as his leading man and after their first collaboration on Au Revoir, Mon Amour, Au went back to something smaller in scale and old fashioned in its ways, namely the romance/drama/comedy. He consciously uses genre staples that have been done to death but hinges a lot on his leading man and lady for it to stand out and he succeeds.
A Roof With A View sees an already suave and terrific actor strike up fine chemistry with prior Category III starlet Veronica Yip. Yip gets strong emotional beats to work with for sure but Au challenges by letting the whole proceedings, including the drama and comedy, play out calm and light, something Yip in particular nails. A lot of subtle things can be read into Hiu Tung's plight and desire to finally settle down and further shows how easily Yip escaped her sexy image from movies such as Take Me and Pretty Woman. A Roof With A View can easily be looked down upon as being too clichéd but it thoroughly works and is a small, Sunday afternoon delight of a movie. Perhaps even Au's finest next to Dream Lovers. Kwan Hoi San, Ray Lui and Carina Lau also appear. |
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