Benny Chan’s iconic 1990 Hong Kong action romance classic gets a 4K restoration…
Originally released back in 1990, A Moment of Romance was a hit at the box office, and has since become recognised as a classic of contemporary Hong Kong cinema, packed full of iconic moments and with Shirley Yuen’s theme song If the World Had Romance inspiring countless KTV sessions. The second feature from Benny Chan, who would go on to become one of Hong Kong’s best action directors, the film was produced by Johnnie To and Ringo Lam, and gave Andy Lau one of his most popular and enduring roles as a hot-headed young gangster in love. Having been around in various releases over the years, most of them pretty poor quality, the film now gets a 4K restoration, available as part of a special edition Blu-ray from Radiance, coming with a host of new features.
Lau plays Wah Dee, a lowly Triad working as getaway driver for Trumpet (Tommy Wong), who takes a young girl called Jo-Jo (Jacklyn Wu) hostage during a botched heist. Although Wah Dee manages to escape, and Jo-Jo refuses to identify him to the police, Trumpet orders her death, and the two of them go on the run, hiding out from the Triads and the authorities on Macau. The two fall in love, but any chance of happiness is shattered when Jo-Jo’s mother decides to send her to Canada, and when Trumpet takes over the gang and makes it his mission to see Wah Dee dead, forcing him to retaliate.
Coming back to A Moment of Romance more than thirty years later, it’s easy to see why it’s remained such a favourite, as while Hong Kong 1980s and 1990s cinema is known for its kitchen sink approach, few films have thrown together multiple genres quite so successfully. Certainly, Benny Chan does a great job of combining melodramatic romance, Triad carnage, heroic bloodshed and car racing, and of keeping things both coherent and gripping throughout its short running time. Despite the fact that by 1990 its basic premise had already been seen countless times before, he manages to give the film a real sense of youthful energy and freshness, boosted by fantastically likeable performances from Andy Lau and Jacklyn Wu, whose chemistry makes their love story and its tragic end far more moving than it might otherwise have been. The action also impresses, and while not quite John Woo level it’s above average for the period, with plenty of brutal, surprisingly bloody gang fights and over-the-top car sequences, all playing out against an evocative backdrop of Hong Kong locations and to a top-notch soundtrack of Cantopop ballads.
The 4K restoration of the film is revelatory, as while earlier home releases gave A Moment of Romance a very standard mid-budget 1990s Hong Kong look, here it now more resembles a New Wave production, or perhaps Wong Kar-wai lite, in particular recalling his 1988 debut As Tears Go By, which also starred Lau. The restoration really looks amazing, bringing out a far richer use of colour than previous versions suggested, an atmospheric mix of neon and pastels that work well with both the film’s romantic and thriller elements, and provide a photogenic snapshot of Hong Kong at the time. The release also comes with a solid collection of extras, including new subtitles, a commentary and a visual essay diving into the film, along with an archival audio interview with Benny Chan, making it a reasonably comprehensive package.
The restoration is the main draw though, and its high quality makes this new version of A Moment of Romance a must for fans and for anyone interested in contemporary Hong Kong cinema in general. One of the most iconic works of its time, it’s hard not to feel a sense of nostalgia when watching, and the film serves as an excellent reminder of Benny Chan’s talents and of the dynamism of Hong Kong’s 1980s and 1990s cinema.