The best thing of this movie is that it brought out Charlie Chin, who is in my opinion the most charismatic leading man in the TW romance movie history.

Not only did the movie earn Charlie tremendous fame, but also it marked as the beginning of  his TW romance movie career.  Only two years after this movie was made, the "Two Lins Two Chins" began to dominate TW romance movie and Charlie was of course one of the two famous Chins. Different from Chin Han's "gentleman" screen image, Charlie's screen presence is often more aggressive, dynamic, sharp and strong. In a sense, Charlie is more of a rebel, full of passion and energy, guts and attitude.  I guess this is one of the reasons that I love Charlie so much, as well as Brigitte, they both have the guts and attitude!  (In the typical spoken English, they both kick ass.)

If you have seen this movie, you would understand why this movie made Charlie a heartthrob.  There is not doubt that Charlie was absolutely handsome in it.  More than his devastating good looks, Charlie was also likable, cool with his strong character and attitude.    He looked cute even with his childish and maybe a bit foolish smile (check out the ending when Charlie smiles happily to Chen Chen, so boyish but very likable).

I wouldn't rank this movie on the top of QY movie list, but it is still a fine movie.  There are some good moments in the movie, but many interesting plots in the book were left out in the movie.  I got a bit frustrated that even the famous "Can you teach me how to kiss?" scene between Jiang Yu Wei (Chen Chen) and Luo Jing Chen (Charlie Chin) was not in the movie, which is such a critical and dramatic moment in their love story.  No need to mention all of the fashion design plots in the book have been deleted in the script.  It is understandable that a movie can't adopt all the content in the book, however, it is hard to understand such important and romantic plots have been missed out.  For those who are familiar with the original QY's books, this movie may be a bit disappointing for those deleted plots.

On the other hand, the movie is OK in its story-telling.  Chen Chen and Charlie are fine together and Ge Xiang Ting plays Charlie's headstrong father. 

The movie would be pleasant to all Chen Chen or Charlie's fans.

The movie was a big hit when it was released, however, it lacks some romantic touch that director Bai Jing Rui or Liu Li Li would have given. The songs are good, but have not been largely used in the movie.  The theme songs are sung by You Ya and there is also a nice song by Wan Sha Lang.

I suppose all the QY's fans are familiar with her stories, and thus I don't have to repeat the storyline here.   If you do want to know the plot of this movie, leave a message on my guestbook or forum, then I'll update it later.

Trivia

When Li Xing first cast for his movies, his initial thoughts for his leading man was Alan Tang and followed by Chin Han.  Since these two were not available at that time, someone recommended Charlie Chin (a relatively unknown actor back then) and the rest is history.  

In fact, when I first read the original QY's novel, I felt Charlie was exactly the right person to portray the lead role, the stubborn, sharp, proud and die-hard handsome Luo Jing Chen!  Charlie's attitude and spirit, his intense eyes full of love, hatred, and passion, and his dashing look all made him the best choice for this character.  No wonder the movie won him great stardom and he became the romance leading men ever since.  It saved him from the career of making the numerous martial art movies, which apparently didn't bring out the best of  him.  As such, Charlie is always grateful to Li Xing and Chen Chen.

Novel: Qiong Yao 

Director: Li Xing (Li Hsing) 

Starring: Chen Chen, Charlie Chin 

Year: 1973