ITCHY HEART (2004-HK)
review by Neo


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Sweet yet unoriginal ...
Well, yet another romantic comedy reviewed by me, man and geez they are churning out them like period action flicks in the early 90s, if only they are as good. Following the 2004 trend with romantic comedies like Herbal Tea, Love on the Rocks, Driving Miss Wealthy and My Computer Can Speaks, comes this time around – Itchy Heart. Man, my heart is getting itchy. Okay, that was a bit sad, well to me romantic comedy can be fun to watch, despite it being formulaic as long as it has a reasonable and not so predictable storyline, and the most important of likable leads and good acting turns. Lucky, Itchy Heart falls in the positive catalogues, more like Driving Miss Wealthy (also starring the most versatile actor in HK – Lau Ching Wan) than the awfully predictable Herbal Tea.

The story goes like this Chi-man Poon (Lau Ching-wan) has been married his wife CoCo (CoCo Chiang) for 7 years. They have always been true to each other. Even though their married lives have become bland, the two of them still stayed together for the sake of their other half. One day, CoCo decides to take a holiday on her own. Chi-man, who seldom dares to put his words into action, decides to search for some excitement during the time off from their marriage. He meets a seductive young lady Cherry (Cherry In) during a night out with friend Chi-ming Chan (Pang Shing-chi). Her romantic character and her youth strike a wire in Chi-man's heart. At the same time, he also meets his first love, Bing (Lau Ka-ling) again...Well, it may sounds complicated, but it really is not and if you follow it closely I am sure you will probably predict the ending, but a word of advice, DO NOT READ THE BACK COVER OF THE DVD! If you don’t then the movie will be much more rewarding experience.

As far as performances goes, Itchy Heart provides pretty good turns from both Carina Lau and Lau Ching Wan and the increasing welcoming and sweet Cherie Ying continues to shines. HK award Best New Comer, Andy On continues to show good presences and lucky does not look like becoming the next Edison, though then again that’s not saying much. He definitely more at ease than his wooden role in Black Mask 2 after his scene stealing performance in Star Runner. All of the actors who play comedy well at least romantic ones, Lau Ching Wan is probably the best, well at least in terms of versatility. Man, Lau Ching Wan is so lucky, liked by Cherie Ying, Carina Lau and Coco Chiang, geez I wanna be him, well at least in this movie. Carina Lau puts in another strong performance and has come a long way since her early TVB days to become a prime lead actress. Though not in the same league as like Maggie Cheung, her style is immensely commanding. The one I really liked must be Cherie Ying’s performance, though I may be bias here as I am a fan of her ever since Fulltime Killer, she is most likely the sweetest girl in the romantic comedy genre, if only real life girls are like her!

Overall, Itchy Heart is a movie that is a fun movie ride with some very adequate chemistry especially between Cherie and Lau Ching Wan in the beach scene, two Laus in the Greese scene is also a highlight to watch. The use of Sam Hui’s kau lui music is also fittingly fun and overall, Itchy Heart is without doubt a feel good movie to watch. It is not without flaws but it fun on almost all levels. Director Matt Chow, though the best at subtle visual impact, but this time around he scores marks on casting, and easy going movie experience. Is there is one line to sum up this movie, it must be the movie feels so good and fun that it left me with an Itchy Heart myself!

I rate it 8.5/10

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Product Title : Itchy Heart
Artist Name(s) : Lau Ching Wan| Carina Lau | Cherie Ying| Andy On
Language : Cantonese, Mandarin
Duration : 96 minutes
Reviewed by Neo (Andrew) - June 2004