Well done romance, if not original
Even without reading the comic book from which TLTR is inspired, it's quite obvious that Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai worked quite hard to keep the same spirit. TLTR is a very well done movie, shot with a lot of beautiful still images. It's efficient and cute. It could maybe have been even better if Milkyway had tried to go beyond the comic book and brought something new. But for their first collaboration with an US studio (Warner), the result is still much more convincing than the dozens of collaborations between asian stars and US studios.
Just as any good romantic movie, TLTR gathers all the mandatory things. Cute couple. Takeshi Kaneshiro is not a great actor, but there are some characters he is perfect to play. That's the case in this story, and he is tall enough to kiss Gigi. Who is also an actress with a limited range, but fitting well in this kind of movie. Then you add a cute music, rather classic than pop of course, a cute story where fate is giving some hard time to our couple, some funny sidekicks to bring some humor in the story, and finally you place all that in a nice and clean location, even if it can rain from time to time. Of course that's not very realistic, but that's not really the aim.
Everything is well done, the rythm is quite good and the story good enough not too seem to repetitive. At the end, you feel that TLTR delivers what was promised, without taking too many risks. But this Johnnie To's movie is made according to the book, with a lot of application. Couples should give it a try.
