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All About Love

All About Love

De-Xian-Chao-Fan

Ann Hui

  • Country: Hong Kong, China
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: Cantonese
  • Producer: Ann Hui
  • Executive Producer: Wong Jing
  • Screenplay: YeeShan Yang
  • Runtime: 105
  • Programmes:

All About Love takes a rare look at not only the lives of queer women, but also the challenges of creating a family. Ann Hui expertly balances the serious themes of motherhood, sexuality and discrimination, rarely addressed in Hong Kong films, with wit, humour and compassion.

Comedy,  Queer Interest,  Friendship,  Non Conformity,  Women,  Hong Kong

screening times


official description

A sharp and funny exploration of the complex world of adult relationships, All About Love takes a rare look at the lives of queer women and their specific challenges when it comes to creating a family. Known for her cleverly observed societal dramas, Ann Hui is one of Hong Kong’s most respected filmmakers. Here, she balances the serious themes of motherhood, sexuality and discrimination – topics rarely addressed in Hong Kong cinema – with wit, humour and compassion.

Macy (Sandra Ng), a bisexual lawyer with a fear of commitment, is frustrated by the judgemental attitudes of lesbians, but wants to get back in the female dating game. Urged by her good friends and their life partners to settle down, Macy runs into Anita (Vivian Chow), an ex-girlfriend who is pregnant after a one-night stand with Mike (William Chan). Macy, who is also unexpectedly pregnant with her neighbour Robert (Eddie Cheung), rekindles her romance with Anita, but her fear of commitment threatens to derail their plans to start a family together. Anita is devastated when her co-workers ostracize her after discovering that she’ll be a single mother, and this intensifies her thoughts of giving up the baby.

Chow, who returns to the big screen after a fourteen year absence, is radiant as Anita, developing irresistible chemistry with Sandra Ng, who brings her great comic and dramatic timing to her performance. While All About Love is structured as a commercial romantic comedy, its themes are radical in scope. By presenting queer relationships as the norm and deconstructing the idea of a nuclear family, Hui has expertly crafted a film that dispels stereotypes on what constitutes a family. Hong Kong, for all its modernity is, at its core, still extremely conservative and traditional in terms of gender roles and family values, with no civil rights for same-sex couples. Hui subtly challenges such ideas and reminds the audience that the most important aspects of any relationship are not gender and convention, but love and commitment.

Giovanna Fulvi

director bio

Ann Hui was born in Anshan , China and moved to Hong Kong as a child. She studied at the University of Hong Kong and the London Film School, and worked as an assistant director before directing a series of shorts and television programmes. One of Hong Kong’s most prominent and innovative filmmakers, she has directed numerous features, including The Secret (79), Woo Yuet’s Story (81), Boat People (82), Love in a Fallen City (84), Song of the Exile (90), Summer Snow (94), The Stunt Woman (96), Visible Secret (01), July Rhapsody (02), Goddess of Mercy (03), The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (06) and All About Love (10).

full credits

Principal Cast: Sandra Ng, Vivian Chow, Eddie Cheung, William Chan
Producer: Ann Hui
Executive Producer: Wong Jing
Cinematographer: Charlie Lam
Editor: Eric Kong Chi Leung, Chan Chi Wai
Sound: Anthony Chue
Music: Anthony Chue
Production Designer: Albert Poon
   
International Sales Agent: Mega-Vision Pictures Limited
Production Company: Class Limited Productions
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