Merging radically different genres is always a tricky business, and most of the time, takes a very steady directorial hand to accomplish the desired balance. In the case of “Loving You”, Johnnie To attempts to combine a crime thriller with a melodramatic romance. Let us see how he fares.
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Inspector Lau Chun-hoi is the embodiment of the anti-hero. While he is very courageous and a workaholic, he also mistreats his colleagues and particularly his underlings, he drinks, he is a womanizer, and constantly ignores his wife who desperately tries to maintain an emotional connection with him. As the film begins, his interactions with a drug dealer named Gwan become the beginning of Lau's downward spiral. Their second meeting, during which the villain exploits all of his faults and his frustration from learning that his wife is carrying the child of another man, to trap him, ends up with the inspector having a bullet stuck in his head and the criminal getting away easily. Miraculously, he survives but he ends up incapacitated in a hospital, with no sense of smell or taste. His pregnant wife, not being able to abandon him, starts taking care of him again, and a second chance for their marriage appears. People, however, do not change that easily, while Gwan is not done with Lau.
Johnnie To directs a film that is split in three parts. The first part includes all the elements of a distinct action/crime movie, with To's prowess in the genre being more than evident in pace, camera movement, and the overall setting of the action, which in this case, includes large amounts of bloodshed. The middle part, on the other hand, is much slower, and, although it allows for much character analysis, somewhat cheesy. The main source of this last aspect is the music, which tries to force a kind of sentimentalism that seems completely out of place on occasion. Some brief moments of subtle humor tone this aspect down a bit, but in general, the dramatic part of the movie feels disconnected from the rest of the narrative, particularly since the last part turns to crime action again. The same applies to the overall comment deriving from the middle section, which seems to state that marital bonds can be very strong, even in the face of logic, particularly if love is (was?) involved.
On the other hand, the acting in this part, particularly from Lau Ching Wan is quite convincing, with him highlighting his range in the best fashion. Carmen Lee's part, although relegated to just looking beautiful (she is gorgeous), also shines in this part, especially due to her chemistry with Lau. Not so much on the rest of the movie, though, where she mostly screams or cries, since her lines are particularly few. To Tsung Hua makes for a great villain as Gwan, with his sinister look and intense moves.
“Loving You” is not a bad film, and at 84 minutes (79 on Netflix) is quite easy to watch. However, it is also uneven, to the point that it seems that To was not sure what he wanted to do with it, thus resulting in a somewhat faulty effort, despite that the action scenes definitely compensate.
