Product Details

• Actors: Edmund Strode, Alex Wong (II), Carrie Leung, Kin Wai Young, Colette Koo
• Directors: Simon Chung
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Cantonese, English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
• DVD Release Date: November 20, 2001
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B00005OSK9
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #227,075 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "First Love and Other Pains" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

FIRST LOVE AND OTHER PAINS/ONE OF THE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The quiet clash of two worlds, July 2, 2002

By 

Yngvar Myrvold (Tønsberg, Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Love and Other Pains (DVD)

You don't need flashy direction and big budgets when you have interesting characters, tangible dilemmas, and troubled human relationships. Here is a good example. A quiet love story taking place in Hong Kong between Hugh, a 49 year old professor of English literature and his Chinese student, 19 year old Mark.

The two men are from very different worlds. Hugh is a neurotic character, sensing that his life is slipping away from him. He is writing a play about a long-lost love-affair, but can't get it published. This frustrates him no end, and he has problems concentrating on his job at the University.

Into his life enters Mark, a polite, intelligent Chinese boy, very Confucian, but he seems more sure of himself. He wants Hugh badly, but Hugh is keeping a distance. The key scene happens near the end, when a failed phone-call proves critical.

This film benefits from several viewings. The people grow on you, and what seems like stiff acting is actually restraint, modesty, a reluctance to let themselves go. The good manners of Chinese culture is very much in evidence in Mark and Hugh. Yet, this doesn't retract from the movie, it merely allows you to project you own emotions into the characters. Very Checkovian, you might say.
As for the gay content, expect nothing explicit. But other than that, this is very good indeed.

Note: The film lasts 50 minutes.