A movie recommendation

I ran across a Hong Kong romantic comedy in the used DVD store the other day and figured I'd give it a try. Despite the fact that the only available English is in the subtitles (you can choose to hear it in either Cantonese or Mandarin, if that's useful to you), my kids all wound up giving it a big thumbs up.

I don't know exactly how to describe The Trouble-Makers (一屋两火), because I've never seen a movie quite like it. And since a lot of its charm was the fact that I really did not know what was coming next -- which is rarely the case when I watch a movie -- I hate to risk spoiling the effect by explaining what it's all about. Let's just say that the characters are likable (despite being somewhat, shall we say, unrestrained by the strictures of ethical considerations), the chemistry between Maggie Q and Terence Yin is more than adequate, and the twists and turns of the plot are creative and unpredictable, if perhaps not always perfectly hole-free. Bottom line, if you can find it cheap, I certainly recommend it. Not quite as much as I would recommend The Valet [La Doublure], but still very much worth the watching, I'd say.

P.S. Not everybody agrees with me. But don't go read this guy's scathing review if you think you might actually watch the film, because the view is one long spoiler despite being about a movie whose greatest strength is its unpredictability. The reviewer's attitude seems to be that if he can't keep you from watching it he can at least make damn well sure he ruins it for you in advance. "See? I TOLD you you wouldn't enjoy it..."