Review of End of Love (2008) by Ceph J — 20 Oct 2011

A sad but genuine film with actors who feel like real people. I admired the independent flm which displays characters involved with drugs, sex, and prostitution but can't control themselves despite efforts at reform. Lee Chi Kin underplays the main character (Ming) but that's ok because the actor is charming and cute. Although you like him, you don't respect the character because the role as written is too passive. At the slightest urging, he's partaking in drugs, sex and prostitution without any resistance of his own. The character feels like a chameleon. Guthrie Yip as Keung gives a heartbreaking performance as a reformed man whose life self destructs over his love of a woman.

The title "End of Love" encompasses this realization and dreams lost. It also means the lost love between Yan (Ben Yeung) and Ming. I disagree with the motion of a lost love with his mother who, rightfully, is angry about Ming having sex with a man in her home but it could mean his "lost love" over his mother's suicide. My favorite character is Jomain Chiang as the wild Jackie but the role is underwritten. She plays a catalyst in both Ming's and Keung's destruction. You could label the movie as a gay movie but a more appropriate label is a drug movie. It actually makes us understand the appeal of drugs to these two men, Keung and Ming.