Imagine for a second you are trapped like Malcom McDowell in “A Clockwork Orange” being subjected to watch a cinema screen with your eyes forced open unable to shut them to the horrors on screen. After the 90 minutes I endured watching “In Between loves” this is the movie I imagine playing if that nightmare were to ever happen to me. I get that in Hong Kong cinema genres blend, so a Horror\Comedy hybrid is to be expected. In fact, personally I feel that Hong Kong does these better than anybody. Yet every so often, we get examples of why this are difficult balancing acts. You could argue that this is the Ying to “Mr Vampire's” yang. A balancing of the cinematic universe by making a movie so bad that you suspect its actually part of a “Producers” style scam.
Chang Hsin Lung (Alfred Cheung) is a taxi driver with a crush on news reporter Jenny Tung (Maggie Cheung) much to the despair of his colleague Ti (Sandra Ng) who loves him unrequitedly. To get her attention, Chang Hsin Lung reports crimes to her so that she can get the lead on stories, which puts him at odds with her boyfriend John Liu (Lawrence Ng) who is also cheating on her. After reporting a murder, Chang Hsin Lung becomes a prime suspect and sets out to find the real killer to prove his innocence, but the danger may be closer to home than he thinks.
On the surface, there is a pretty good cast her. Alfred Cheung, Maggie Cheung and Sandra Ng are a decent line up. That's about the best it gets. Alfred Cheung is annoying in this, and I do mean annoying! He reports the crimes to get Maggie Cheung's attention. Ok I get it; Maggie Cheung is an attractive lady but there's slightly more wholesome ways to go about this. Acting increasingly creepy to the point that you are probably one step away from being a serial killer is not a good look. Remember too that this is supposed to be a romantic comedy\horror, so when your male lead is actually making for a more convincing serial killer than your actual killer then we might just have a credibility problem. Then again when your female lead acts incredibly dumb too, any credibility or interest in the characters is lost. The fact she keeps following up on his leads despite the audience by now going “this guy is a creep” makes no sense. You never buy this central relationship and it's his best friend Sandra Ng who appears to be the better match. She is in fact the one sympathetic character and about the only positive I found in this morass of mediocrity, is that the script recognizes it. Rounding up the principle cast is Lawrence Ng. It's amazing that I have actually seen him in romantic leads as his screen persona fits perfectly for the role of the odious lawyer John Liu. The supporting motley crew of taxi drivers are a reminder of why the Anthony Wong feature “Taxi Hunter” struck a chord.
The splicing of genres, when done well, creates something that feels fresh and, allied to the usual energy that comes out of Hong Kong cinema, has given us some fantastic features. “In Between Loves” just gets the mix horribly wrong. As a romance we don't care about the central couple and the secondary love interest storyline is torpedoed by the lack of empathy we have for the male lead. The comedy is just unfunny. Now here I need to put in a caveat as there may be a cultural translation issue, but I didn't laugh once during the whole thing. The horror aspect doesn't really gel into the rest of the story and the ultimate revelation of the killer for me was in very poor taste. Again, this is a personal opinion and is written some 30 years after the film's release, but the portrayal of mental health here is not treated well. The musical score is poor and the direction is lacking attention. The tone, as to be expected, is all over the place with scenes jumping everywhere. Set design looks cheap, the news studio is barely even a set. Overall, it just feels as if it was put together haphazardly with no care or attention to detail
As you may have gathered already, I didn't like this one very much! I usually try to find positives in everything that I watch but I struggled here immensely. Sometimes you watch something that is so bad that it provides entertainment value. Here it was just a painfully experience that was neither funny not scary. For me, the best way to enjoy this movie is to watch something else!
