Love Me, Love My Money (2001)
Skinflint businessman Richard (Leung) doesn't feel bad when he sacks his employees and secretary to cut unnecessary costs. He also doesn't bat an eyelid when his gold-digging girlfriend leaves after he refuses to give her money. She gets her revenge by cancelling his credit cards and giving away his furniture. Suddenly destitute, he's forced to rely on the generosity of Choi (Shu Qi), a good Samaritan who helps him out even though she thinks he's a scumbag who makes a habit of cheating women out of money.
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How sad is this?
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
"Love Me, Love My Money" ("Yau Ching Yam Shui Baau") is basically your average romantic-comedy, but still it is quite a good movie, especially because it has a very good story, but better yet, it has an amazing ensemble of actors and actresses on the list.The story in "Love Me, Love My Money" is multi-millionaire Richard Ma (played by Tony Leung) returning to Hong Kong from New York and hooks up with his long time friend Tom (played by Ka Tung Lam). Richard breaks up with his money-obsessed girlfriend and she cleans out his apartment and managed to block all of his credit cards and report his ID card stolen, effectively rendering Richard stuck without money. Richard is a super stingy person and tries to save money everywhere he can, and being forced into buying late dinner for two ladies, Choi (played by Shu Qi) and Chloroform (played by Teresa Mak). Unable to pay for it, Richard have to borrow money from Choi. Things start to escalate as Richard's fate seems to be bound to Choi and they keep meeting one another in the most unlikely of places. Choi doesn't like Richard and thinks he is scum, while Richard is drawn to Choi's seemingly lack of greed for his wealth and fame.The story actually works out quite well, because it is believable and funny, and it is really helped along by some great hilarious situations and of course the great acting by Tony Leung and Shu Qi, but also helped well along the way by supporting actor Ka Tung Lam and actress Teresa Mak. There is such a great chemistry between Tony Leung and Shu Qi, as there also was in "Seoul Raiders", and they really work well together on the screen and compliment one another quite nicely. But also the feisty chemistry between Ka Tung Lam and Teresa Mak was really great and added a lot of charismatic flavor to the movie.Sure, "Love Me, Love My Money" is a fairly average run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, but it is just that one step ahead of most others in the same genre. So if you enjoy romantic comedies, then you definitely have to treat yourself to "Love Me, Love My Money", don't let a small fact like it is a Hong Kong movie or in Cantonese language scare you off. Movies are meant to be watched and enjoyed in their original language.I was surprised by this movie, and am quite glad that I purchased it from Amazon and added it to my collection. It is well deserving movie in any Hong Kong cinema aficionado's DVD collection.
Saw the film primarily because I'm in love with Shu Qi. To be honest, I don't think Chinese comedies "translate" well to Western audiences. I had a similar reaction to "Kung Fu Hustle" (although I thought this film was better). The acting, as well as humor is overly broad, and would be mocked had this been an American film because of it. As an American, it is surprising to see Tony Leung in a comedy, and many of the Chinese culture references (card games and bar games) went right over my head. In addition to Shu Qi, her sidekick, "Chloroform" played by Teresa Mak is also stunningly attractive. But in the scenes where she is standing next to Shu Qi, it is less obvious.A film for Shu Qi fans, but I'd say that's about it.
Although the background music is above average, and the slap stick comedy at the midpoint of the movie is fun, and the plot is interesting, LOVE ME, LOVE MY MONEY suffers from being blandly directed. However, none of these details truly matter because the main reason for watching this film is to see Chi Hsu of picture book fame. Chi Hsu plays Choi (who is also known as "Girl 14"). Words fail to describe the spell she is able to cast over healthy young men, but let it suffice to say that she is the ultimate elegant much loved princess of all female kind. The IMDB does not list character names for this film, but also noteworthy is the actress who plays Fong (who is also known as "Choraform").Let these two lead actresses read a phone book, let them sit on a phone book, or let them simply stand there holding a phone book -- it does not matter, just please keep them in front of the camera!
The first half of "Love Me, Love My Money" is mildly amusing romcom fare. The second half I didn't see having abandoned the DVD because what I was seeing was not worth the effort required to read the subtitles. I've watched many subtitled films and this flick probably has the worst I've seen. The font is small, the translation poor and verbose, and the subtitles aren't stacked to allow for longer on-screen durations but delivered one line at a time requiring a lot speed reading with eyes fixed at the bottom of the screen. The result is a lot of pausing to be able to catch the humor buried in the dialogue (no sight gags), watch the facial expression, etc. Remember, if you watch this dialogue-intensive film with someone else (Non-Chinese speakers) you'll only be able to watch as fast as the slowest reader.