Basic Love (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region All

Hong Kong Cinema's take on romance in the last few years have consisted largely of glossy rom-coms and Patrick Kong blockbusters that equate modern love with a game of deceit. In such an atmosphere, Basic Love feels almost unique for sticking to a classic love-triangle melodrama, and remaining refreshingly free of agenda and cynicism. An oddly sincere release, especially coming from horror director Oxide Pang, Basic Love is probably closer to the youth romances that Japan churns out than a typical Hong Kong offering, except it lacks the star power and audience to carry locally.

This coming-of-age teen tearjerker revolving around three friends who aren't very good at voicing their hearts follows a storyline predictable to anyone who's ever so much as watched a Korean drama episode. But Basic Love also stays fairly subtle and understated for its duration, mostly steering clear of blatant waterworks in favor of a quieter, calmer look at love, life, and friendship. Although more drama and fewer realistically mundane conversations would have made for a more interesting viewing, the decision to balance the pure love story with grounded characters is commendable, and helps soften the cliches to something closer to reality. Call me wishful, but I'd like to think that the decent, reticent protagonists of Basic Love who can't face each other honestly in romance because they value their friendship are more realistically drawn than the back-stabbing backup lovers of a Patrick Kong romance.

Newcomer Rex Ho makes a respectable if not especially remarkable debut as the guy caught in between. His performance is realistic in that it clearly lacks any method. Though raw and opaque, Ho is not without promise, and is in the very least worth a second movie's chance considering Hong Kong Cinema's severe lack of new young male talent. Similarly, Elanne Kwong remains a name worth watching, though her deliberate performance in the film feels out of place at times alongside her quieter, less experienced co-stars. It is surprisingly Janice Man who delivers something of a breakthrough performance. Shedding her dolled-up looks, big-eye contact lens, and spoiled-princess airs, the model-turned-actress, who was for a while one of the most ubiquitous faces in Hong Kong, is almost unrecognizable as a normal soft-spoken teen with an unrequited crush on her friend. Her character is easily the most compelling of the three leads.

One would be forgiven for expecting some kind of supernatural twist going into this movie considering Oxide Pang is at the helm, but Basic Love stays true to the film's almost defiantly old-fashioned Chinese title - "Love Story". The only twists here are the occasional odd camera shots, the overuse of the fuzzy lens, and that gratuitous Elanne Kwong-Janice Man onscreen kiss which generated most of the film's buzz.

Basic Love is far from original or exciting, but it never feels less than sincere and straightforward in its intentions and sentiments. It's certainly not for the cynical or the impatient, but for those in the market for a simple pure love youth film, Basic Love offers a touching, attractively lensed love story that agrees with the eyes and heart.