77 Heartbreaks

Herman Yau made a name for himself directing raunchy and gritty Cat III films during the early 90s, but if you dig deeper into his oeuvre, you'll find a much broader range of films. It wasn't a big surprise then that 77 Heartbreaks turned out to be a contemporary romance with a nasty little bite, more akin to the Pang's Love trilogy and Heiwark Mak's Ex.

After a 10-year relationship, Adam and Eve decide to split up. Eve is fed up with Adam's lack of responsibility and moves back to live with her mom. By chance, Adam finds Eve's diary, which holds 77 stories of instances when Adam messed up and Eve forgave him. Reading back, Adam realizes he didn't always treat Eve's love with the proper respect.

The performances are laudable (Pakho Chow in particular is a revelation), the romance feels realistic, and Yau bends genre clichés to great effect. Like most of his films, there is a stronger signature lacking to make this an actual masterpiece, but people who like romance with a little extra grit would do well to seek out this film. Very good.