Love in a Puff (志明與春嬌)

Love in a Puff (志明與春嬌) is a locally produced romance comedy film which is directed by Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung (彭浩翔). It is a very simple story about two smokers met at an outdoor smoking area and they fall in love with each other afterwards. Edmond’s personal style of film making can be easily seen in this movie, in which he usually chooses issues of ordinary people as the main theme and adds elements of humor and horror in his movies, such as Men Suddenly in Black (大丈夫) and Beyond Our Ken (公主復仇記). Although Love in a Puff is a romance comedy, Edmond still deliberately added horrifying elements in the car-park scenes which serves as his signature.

This movie is an exhibition of authentic culture of Hong Kong, including living space, habits, popular culture and collective memory. Many places in Hong Kong are shown in the movie, such as the streets, buildings, shops and car parks. Some significant places that represent Hong Kong like Eastern and Western restaurants (茶餐廳) and hourly hotel (時鐘酒店) are also shown. Hong Kong’s food culture is presented through the activities performed by the actors, such as drinking iced lemon tea and eating hot-pot. Habits that shared by Hong Kong teenagers and young adults are shown in many scenes, for instance, using SMS to communicate with friends because the fee is relatively cheap in Hong Kong; spending lots of time playing portable video games; using Facebook in order to meet new people, upload photos and tag friends; holding birthday party in the karaoke; using foul language while having conversation with friends. The director also arises the recent trifling attitude towards relationship in Hong Kong, for example, one of Miriam’s friend met a Taiwan man through Facebook, but the man dumped her because she is not pretty; Shawn and Miriam had only met for a few days, and they started to fall in love even though they don’t know each other well.

This movie has reflected the collective memory of Hong Kong people, especially the smokers. As shown in the movie, the Hong Kong Health Authority has established law in 2007 to ban smoking in all indoor areas, causing smokers gather around and smoke near the rubbish bins in outdoor areas during lunch time and breaks. Smokers from different background start to share talks with one another and they gradually become friends and form a new community know as “Hot Pot Pack”. In 2009, the government established another law to increase the tax of cigarettes sold in Hong Kong. As a result, smokers bought lots of cigarettes before the law is carried out. The movie has reflected the reality because many of my friends had done that too.

By showing these social memories, local audience can be easily affected and created resonance, and I believe this is the reason that makes this movie successful.


Tang Yat Man, Lily (10317336)