Love In A Puff
Pang Ho Cheung

The story: Retail assistant Cherie (Miriam Yeung) and adman Jimmy (Shawn Yue) meet as they take cigarette breaks in the same alley. They are drawn to each other and the development of their tentative relationship over the course of a few days is depicted against a background of incessant smoking.

The English title sounds like a fluffy romantic comedy but Hong Kong’s Pang Ho Cheung is too wily a writer- director to simply serve up something as mundane and straightforward as that.
In fact, the opening credits will have you wondering if you walked into the right screening hall as it seems to be the set-up for a slasher horror flick. It turns out to be a scary story being told by a smoker to his regular group of kakis.
Driven by the anti-smoking regulations to take their breaks at a few select spots, these knots of outsiders soon form their little cliques and as another character remarks: “It’s a great way to meet women.”
There is a spark of interest between Cherie and Jimmy when they first meet and that soon flames into something more. But how will things develop given that she is more trusting and straightforward by nature while he is more suspicious and likes to answer questions with questions?
Thus, the film chronicles the tricky terrain of first attraction. Is it a crush? A passing infatuation? Or is it something more? How do you judge your feelings and then communicate that to the object of your affection, who may or may not feel the same way?
The nuances and ellipses of a nascent relationship are explored to great detail but Love never feels bogged down.
As he had previously demonstrated in comedies such as Men Suddenly In Black (2003) and AV (2005), Pang has an ear for great dialogue, which goes from raunchy to incisive to laugh-out- loud hilarious. Like Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, 1997), he has a love for onscreen characters telling stories that push the boundaries of good taste but could never be accused of being boring.
Also, Yeung and Yue slip so easily into their roles and play off each other so naturally that what unfolds seems entirely believable.You can chart Cherie’s every emotion and insecurity by the looks on Yeung’s face and then share her delight when she secretly allows herself little smiles of happiness.
The idea that these are real people rather than mere caricatures is strengthened by the addition of reality show-style interviews with the various characters.
As with AV, a sweet comedy about pornography which also had something to say about the state of Hong Kong’s youths, Pang once again makes some shrewd social observations, this time with regard to smokers and smoking.
Some have bemoaned the state of Hong Kong cinema and the lack of exciting auteurs in recent years but the scene cannot be completely dismal when there are originals such as Pang lighting it up.
(ST)