50FiftillidideeBrain

🕰Timing in life is everything; so the adage goes. In Hong Kong, time is G💰LD. As long as you move you'll live. Once you stop you'll starve. Over 200,000 Filipinos work in Hong Kong. It's most common to have a 2-yr domestic helper contract as Filipinos are not allowed to do anything else - unless they manage to become a citizen. Therefore, when Joy loses her job because her employers can no longer pay her, she takes an illegal waitressing job. The cops, inevitably, will come by to check IDs. When Joy sees them, she busts a move and runs. She ends up running right into the handsome bartender and 😙busts another move. She uses him as camouflage to hide from the po-po. Cops rarely bother a couple snogging in the alleyway, afterall. It's done so often in movies you might think that they would start checking, even if a duo is rounding first and headed for second, but it always seems to work.

The Filipino community in Hong Kong is small. Everyone is within 1° of separation, but it's large enough to support a Filipino radio station. (They have a nifty microeconomic system in place as well.) Joy thinks she got away scott-free only to wake up the next morning to a radio announcement about her! Ethan, the bartender, is looking for Joy so that she can return the kiss that she stole from him! Joy's friends go insane.

HLG is about what decent, but poor, people must do to survive: It is all about hard choices. It is also about the nature of love. Joy & Ethan. Ethan + Joy. She resists him, but she can't for long. The problem is that she's leaving. She's definitely leaving. She has a nursing degree that she can't use in Hong Kong. She's going to be a nurse in Canada. That's her dream, and n🅾thing's going to change her mind. N🅾t a thing/budkis/pist🅾🅾za/larkaflark/nuffink/jack squat/NATTY. Joy is no wimp. She has a will of iron. She warns Ethan to not get attached. Yet they allow themselves to fall in love. Every day they push the knife in a little deeper.

Their story is sweet and these protags are likable. He says he can handle it and he won't get in her way, but as that 🕰 approaches the pressure ratchets up. Because, ‘when you love, it's all or nothing. If you hold back, then why love it all?’ Ethan has a point. ‘There are questions inside of me that only I can answer,’ Joy insists. Joy has goals, a mission, and an ironclad agenda. She will not be swayed. Not now.

L💘VE. What does it look like? To Ethan it's: “If you loved me enough you would stay.” ♻ To Joy it's: “If you loved me enough you would want me to go.” Later, Joy asks the universe: “When a woman gives too much of herself, she's stupid, but when she prioritizes herself, she's bad. Where do we need to place ourselves? Is love only expressed through sacrifice?” Why so often, indeed, does every option, for women especially, seem irreconcilable? Love can teeter from selfish to selfless. Perhaps love always starts down in the selfish zone, but the more we sincerely love someone, the more selfless we should become. Leaving the shallow end and diving down deeper should elevate our love higher. If not, we must question how much in 💓 we are or how selfish we actually are. A young person should never be expected to throw away h/h future for a relationship, particularly a relatively new one. Talk about creating a debt for regret - No sane person would endorse that. Joy agonizes over this unexpected timeout from the race she's been running. Either option is valid. Her choice is hers alone. HLG tells young girls that their personal development and future is every bit as important as love.

Befitting a modest budget, most of the filming is on the street or in contained spaces. There's a couple of wow shots. They take a day off to go up into the mountains. On a cliff looking down on the city, the buildings are uniformly white. While they look like bad dental work there's also an ethereal beauty to the vista. The effect is otherworldly.

HLG is a 118 minute, 2019 release that is rated 8.2 on MDL. Overall, this is a well put together production. The writing, directing and acting all blend to make a great product with few flaws. This is a 🇵🇭Filipino production and I am looking forward to seeing more of their works. I've seen 2 🇭🇰Hong Kong productions, The Defected-8.2 and Hong Kong West Side Stories(7.5). Both of them are good but also dark, edgy, sad, and a display of the worst elements of humanity. The group that is the most downtrodden in Hong Kong seems to have a brighter outlook. Between the 3 productions, one wouldn't think it's the same place. HLG is well worth the time to get a peek at life in Hong Kong from the view of the hard working, overlooked Filipino community. We🇺🇲 have alot to be thankful for.


QUOTE📢

Choice is only for the rich.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣78 📝72 🎭79 💓70 🦋67 🌞71 🎨70 ⚡30 🎵/🔊78 😅23 😭47 😱30 😯49 😖20 🤔45 💤0 🔚70

Age 12+ Adult situations kissing - mild. Rated PG: Parental Guidance Suggested

Re-📺? Not opposed


In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

Historical/Period:
Overlord 8.4,
The Sleepless Princess 9.1 (there's a minor fantasy element),
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in the style of ancient Chinese opera),
Ruyi's Royal love in the palace (episodes 1 - 49 are a 9.3. While looking up it's historical accuracy, I learned how heartbreaking the rest of the show is. It's over 80 episodes, so that's a hella-lotta hurt. I am not up for it now, so I stopped at episode 49, which is a perfect ending. I cannot recommend episodes 1 - 49 enough. It's near perfect).


K:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl / Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo 8.5;
The Kings's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9


Fantasy - Heavenly realm:
Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain 7.5;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome siblings 8.7;
Heavenly Sword 9 (Kung-fu!);
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Eternal love 8.3 + its sequel Eternal Love Of dream/Three Lives, Three Worlds, 10 Miles Of Peach Blossoms 7.7 (I watched these in the wrong order, which was a shame. EL is not without flaws, the FL being the biggest issue, but overall it's outstanding. The sequel was not originally planned. EL actually tells the same story as ELOD as a secondary romance, and the show was so popular that they did the sequel and changed quite a bit).
Love and Redemption 10

China excels at period and fantasy pieces. There's no Action or Modern Day Chinese features for me to recommend. There are a few that I've enjoyed, but they pale when compared to Korean shows, some of which are listed here.

K Modern Day romance:
A Witch's Love 7.8;
love To Hate You 8.9;
Touch your heart 8.2;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's okay not to be okay 9;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;

K Action:
K2 8;
Private Lives 8.1;
Sisyphus 8;
Tunnel 8.1;
Signal 8.6;
Black 9;
Squid Game 8.4;
Kingdom 8.3;
Sweet Home 8.4


Originally 〰️🖊 May 2024