drjlo "Almost a Love Story" is known as a classic among the Asian countries, not just China or Hong Kong. However, I somehow missed watching it until 2014(!) perhaps because I was not too eager to see yet another uninspiring romantic comedy, which seems to have been the norm for quite some time now in the cinema world. After seeing every combination of the romantic comedy formula for years, I did not expect much out of "Almost," which admittedly has plenty of its own cliché's and coincidences. But despite those, the movie still manages to be achingly beautiful and heart-taxingly stark in its depiction of the human condition. This movie may especially shock the Westerners who are used to "clean" and neat romantic love stories. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it as soon as possible.

divemaster13 "Comrades, Almost a Love Story" is one of my all-time favorite movies, of any genre. It is hard to express just how wonderful and moving this romance is. Enough to touch even the most jaded and cynical of hearts."Comrades" swept award after award upon its Hong Kong release. For example, see the list for the Hong Kong Film Awards: Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director (Peter Chan), Best Actress (Maggie Cheung), Best Supporting Actor (Eric Tsang). Plus Best Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume & Make-up Design, and Score.The story covers a 10-year span. In 1986, Li Jun (played by Leon Lai) arrives in Hong Kong right off the proverbial turnip truck. He's a Mainlander from some rural community up north. He has come to Hong Kong to make some money in order to eventually bring his fiancée down and get married. This task is made difficult because he is rather naive and more importantly, doesn't speak a word of Cantonese. His best hope is to work menial jobs until he can learn the language and better his circumstances.One day he goes into a McDonald's to pantomime his way into ordering a hamburger. The cashier, Li Qiao (Maggie Cheung), is arrogantly frustrated with his inability to speak Cantonese and tells him he'd better get with the program because in the hustling capitalism of Hong Kong, people like him don't stand much of a chance. He is drawn to her because she can speak to him in Mandarin and she is very cute. "Are you from the Mainland, too?" he asks. "Of course not!" she says. (It's hard to move up in HK with that stigma attached.) Anyway, they end up spending time together. She steers him toward an English language class. Out of friendship? Well, not really, because she gets a cut ($$) for every Mainlander she delivers. She also has him running errands and such for her.They grow closer. At one point she confesses that she too is from the Mainland (but from nearby Guangzhou Province, not from up north hicksville). He replies "I've pretty much known that all along." "They why did you let me take advantage of you?" "I needed a friend and you're the only one I have." They become lovers of convenience and proximity. He still loves his fiancée and sends her letters, but she is distant and Li Qiao is near.So far, this is the first half hour of the film. How it plays out from here is the magic of this movie. The backdrop of the next 10 years is the ever-changing Hong Kong as it prepares for the 1997 handover. Fortunes made, fortunes lost. Li Qiao and Li Jun go their separate ways, but find themselves back in each other's lives from time to time. She meets someone else and he ends up marrying his fiancée. But still their feelings for each other can never be suppressed entirely.I hope I have not made this seem like a typical boy-meets-girl romance. It is so much more than that, and yet without all the trappings you might expect from a big-budget Hollywood film. There are no wisecracking sidekicks, no cute kids making fools out of the adults, no slapsticky miscommunications. Just these two wonderfully engaging people and the lives they lead and the difficult choices they make.I know I am a romantic softie. A number of movies cause my eyes to get all misty. I've seen "Comrades" at least 6 times and I still get leaky. I know what happens, I know how it ends – there are no plot surprises. Yet every time I watch it I can't help but be absorbed by the acting, the pacing, and the emotional impact of the story of these two people.

canguang chen After i watch this movie, i have many beautiful feeling and just want to cry. it is a really warm and genuinely love stories with wonderful music. The performance of each character is extremely appropriate for their situation. I will recommend it to my friends, because it likes Columbus found a new continent,and i find a movie with a well cinematography.I will not repeat the plot again, everybody would see what is the excellent point. but here i will figure out what is true love from it. the true love is the girl or boy you want but you can be with him or her for a long time, even though you can not be together just like the protagonists how they love each other.this film have too much coincidence....need to be act more nature...anyway i love it

lihan9909 I have just finished watching it. The emotions came out from deep down in my heart, and I couldn't control myself to stop crying. This is the film of love, reality and dream. It has nothing to do politically with HongKong before or after 1997. It shows the story of two young people who think they are young enough to not choose and avoid love as the dream of life, instead, they pretend to make their 'materialised dreams' come true. However, after their dreams do come true, they are not satisfied. When they turn over their faces, and realise that having each other is the dream. This is a soft and gentle film that in some way affect your heart deep down inside. The struggle the characters experienced are somehow showing the contradictions that all the immigrants would encounter. Those two 'immigrants' from mainland of China into HongKong have the reluctance of choosing between 'dream' or 'love', just like all the foreigners live in a country would have confused with and took the wrong decision. It is difficult to settle into one culture, when meet the people from your hometown, you feel like as if they are closer to you than your family. From the fantastic performance from both two actors, the whole structure of the film is satisfying, and the pace of unwrapping the storyline is as exciting and surprising as the Christmas presents. The love in the film is somehow very 'pure' and 'simple' from the determination and patience that took them years to find each other. Finally, there is only one thing to say: Among the sea of people, 'yuan'--the invisible and chosen force that connect you with the others in a particular way is unchangeable and if you believe it, you will never be able to miss 'the one' for you, no matter what happens, and where you will b. Just ask yourself-- billions of people in the world, why do I meet you not someone else?