Two years after the publicly acclaimed 'A Moment of Romance', Director Benny Chan landed another series of 'AMOR', still with the similar formula of a tragic love story, merciless underground life, beautiful scores and of course a heart-robbing figure lead. This time Aaron Kwok got the honor to replace Andy Lau as the male lead while Jacklyn still took part as the female lead but this time with a complete different character, for the story in 'AMOR II' is basically not connected in any way to the first AMOR.
Aaron plays Frank, a young fellow whom under some sort of guilty feeling following his mother's death, summits to the rebellious life of his own and commits himself to the world of illegal street racing rather than having an established and glamorous life as a rich family's inherent. A fate encountered him with Celia(Jacklyn), a young call girl from Mainland China with a laudable motive who unfortunately happened to be at a wrong time and a wrong place and ended up with a thug head wanting her dead so badly. What happened next is so predictable that Frank took her under his protection with all the consequences, both from the thugs and from an old timer paltry cop.
While trying to level the origin, the sequel in my opinion appears more inferior both in storyline and the main leads' chemistry while the supporting casts are also not as strong, even the remarkable Anthony Wong was only doing so so. Regardless, it still portrays a very memorable moment of romantic sequence even after years. With some over-dramatic scenes that seems a little ridiculous and some chivalrous stunts only to be tolerated by those who're familiar with HK cinema, I really wonder how many of those stunts broke their limbs during the takes. The real pacey plot could be better if only focused more in digging each of the main characters and the relationship between, rather than the racing action flick with all its revealing mistakes, which couldn't really be blamed considering the time it was being produced without CGI and kind. But even if you feel annoyed by the movie all along, the final unbearable scene save it all, and if Benny Chan is to emphasize a tragic love story, I guess it works better in AMOR II than the first and forces some sensitive audiences to spare some tissue.
Of course watching the movie now and by that time(around 1992) won't be the same. By that time Aaron Kwok with his irresistible mega-watt smile and fabulous trend-setter hair style was the HK super male idol and everything he did on screen will be looked as just fine by his overwhelming fans, but now I guess a few younger audience won't even recognize him the way he was. That's why it seems that the script by that time was not really the point, but rather 'Aaron' was the key point to the whole movie. I myself used to think that Aaron is the sort of eye-candy idol which as time flew by, his acting career will also vanished, but I guess I must take it back now that after years passed by, that cute idol figure has somehow transformed into a powerful actor, proved by his recently twice winning at Golden Horse Award in 'best actor' category in sequence (2005 & 2006).
Finally I would recommend this movie for those who seek a memorable tragic love story, and to take a look at once the sexiest Hong Kong male idol. Together with the origin Andy Lau's 'A Moment of Romance', both has been a drifting experience to Hong Kong cinema lovers. As for the foreign audience, you will be tempted to like it after a while. Give it a try!
