''Fascination Amour'' is a 1999 Hong Kong

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by

Herman Yau Herman Yau Lai-to (; born 13 July 1961) is a Hong Kong people, Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. Filmography * 1987: ''Tragic Hero'' – Co-Cinematographer * 1987: ''No Regret (1987 film), No Regret'' – Director * ...

and starring

Andy Lau Andy Lau Tak-wah (; born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maint ...

and

Hikari Ishida (born May 25, 1972) is a Japanese actress. She starred along with Megumi Odaka and Natsuki Ozawa in the TV-series ''Hana no Asuka-gumi!''. She also released several singles and six albums and she had one minor hit with the song "Emerald no Suna ...

Plot

Albert Lai (

) is the only child of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

's richest tycoon. Albert brings Kathy (

Qu Ying Joie Qu Ying (; born July 2, 1971 in Changsha, Hunan) is a Chinese model and actress. Life She graduated from the modern drama class at the Artistic School of Hunan, and later became a cast member in the Hunan Repertory Theatre. In 1990, she st ...

), a waitress introduced to him by his mother ( Susan Tse), onto a cruise ship, where on the first date night, he receives the approval of Kathy and gets engaged. This is already Albert's eighth engagement since love always comes and goes very quick for him, and he would always break an engagement whenever he loses the feeling of novelty in each relationship. Albert becomes increasingly fond of Kathy's ability to cope decently. It turns out Kathy has been secretly struggling to study the topic of the second day of the cruise, making her feel extremely exhausted. At this time, Kathy meets Timothy (

Huang Lei Huang Lei (Born December 6, 1971) is a Chinese actor, director, singer and screenwriter. He was born in Nanchang, Jiangxi, and now lives in Beijing. Huang ranked 58th on ''Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned b ...

), a waiter on the ship, who came from a same background as her. Kathy feels unrestrained while being with Timothy, and thus, her heart starts to shift. However, Albert is unwilling to give up and he is confident that he will be able to win Kathy back with his charm. At this time, Sandy (

) appears around Timothy and she views Albert as an enemy. Compared to Albert, Sandy is far more acerbic and a much bigger spender. However, Albert gradually discovers that while Sandy is not bickering with him, he feels empty and lonely, a feeling that he has never had. Before, nobody had dared to point out Albert's shortcomings, only Sandy dared to point them out publicly. As he comes in contact with Sandy more, he becomes attracted to her personality. While the ship is to dock and Albert wants to express his feelings, he discovers police officers on shore waiting for Sandy. It turns out that Sandy is bankrupt and this will be her last journey. Whether or not Kathy and Timothy can be together, or whether Albert is able to reverse the adverse and win Sandy's heart, there will always be an end on a wandering life on a ship when it goes to shore.

Cast

as Albert Lai *

as Sandy Fong *Lillian Ho as Maggie Lai *

as Kathy Luk *

as Timothy Wong * Raymond Wong as Jack *

Christine Ng Christine Ng Wing-mei (; born 24 February 1969) is an actress and singer based on Hong Kong. She was under contract to Hong Kong's TVB and ATV. She is known for her roles in TVB's dramas including ''C.I.B. Files'' and ''The Silver Chamber of So ...

as Rose * Anthony Wong as Eric *

Astrid Chan Astrid Chan (born 8 July 1969 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong actress and host. Career Chan was a Miss Hong Kong 1994 finalist. She acted for TVB first in the late 1990s, then switched to ATV in the early 2000s then switched back to TVB. Her n ...

as Mandy * Susan Tse as Mrs. Lai *James Ha as Albert's assistant *Nelson Cheung as Albert's friend on cruise *Shrila Chun as Albert's friend on cruise

Production

In 2010, when

appeared on the Taiwanese talk show ''

Kangxi Lai Le Kangsi Coming () was a Taiwanese variety-comedy talk show hosted by variety show veterans Dee Hsu (徐熙娣 a.k.a. Xiao S) and Kevin Tsai (蔡康永). It was produced by Chungta Production (中大製作) from 2004 to 2009, and currently produced ...

'', he revealed that this film left him with some regrets. He stated that while he was paid over HK$10 million, when he went aboard the cruise ship to film at the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, after the film company paid him his salary, they did not have any money to hire crew members and extra actors, and thus, Lau was very busy on set having to take care of other crew work. Speaking of how he felt cheated when he got on board, Lau stated, On set, Lau had to pave the rails for the cameras to move and worked as set coordinator and inviting cruise passengers to work as extras.

Reception

Critical

Love HK Film
' gave the film a negative review: "Designed solely to make money during the

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a calendar year whose months are moon cycles, based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. The Lunar New Year as a celebration is observed by numerous cultures. It is also named " Chinese New Year" becau ...

, this fluffy romantic comedy rests solely on

Lau Lau or LAU may refer to: People * Lau (surname) * Liu (劉/刘), a common Chinese family name transliterated Lau in Cantonese and Hokkien * Lau clan, one of the Saraswat Brahmin clans of Punjab * LAU (musician): Laura Fares Places * Lebane ...

’s able shoulders. Sadly, the filmmakers didn’t give him a proper character."

Box office

The film grossed HK $8,889,770 at the Hong Kong box office during its theatrical run from 13 February to 19 March 1999 in

References

External links

* *
Fascination Amour
' at

Hong Kong Cinemagic Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual ( French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The websi ...

* {{Herman Yau 1999 films 1999 romantic comedy films Hong Kong romantic comedy films Seafaring films 1990s Cantonese-language films Films directed by Herman Yau Films set in Puerto Rico Films shot in Puerto Rico 1990s Hong Kong films