All About Love

Ann Hui

The story: When former lovebirds Macy (Sandra Ng) and Anita (Vivian Chow) meet again after many years, both are pregnant. As they sort out their feelings for each other, they also have to decide whether they want to keep their babies.

It has been more than 10 years since the doe-eyed Vivian Chow left show business and her fans will be relieved that she still looks gorgeous. But some things have changed, and for the better.

In her heyday, she was the unofficial leader of a brigade of yunu – beauties who built careers around a sweet and pristine image.

For those who always found the entire shebang too manufactured and cloying, it will be a welcome surprise to see her cutting loose as Anita. She smokes, hooks up with a much younger man Mike (a doggedly earnest William Chan) and passionately smooches her co-star, Sandra Ng.

The two make for a believable couple and the ever-reliable Ng even makes the commitment-phobic lawyer Macy likeably flawed.

Macy reluctantly takes up a case defending ad man Robert (Eddie Cheung) from charges of spousal abuse and ends up coaching him on the art of making love.

The film also gamely takes on gender politics and discrimination. Over drinks with a group of lesbians, Macy becomes the target of criticism when the rest find out that she is bisexual and Macy spells out the irony of a minority group turning against someone who is different.

Meanwhile, Anita has to fight discrimination for being unmarried and pregnant at the bank where she works.

Like The Kids Are All Right, the film’s liberal leanings are never in doubt, though the point is never jammed down your throat. If anything, the message here is more live and let live.

Director Ann Hui, better known for her serious-minded arthouse dramas, handles the proceedings with a light touch.

While the feel-good ending is utterly improbable, it is also sweetly optimistic in suggesting that love, after all, is all you need.

(ST)