First of, as an Asian girl, I am very disappointed with the main female character. She is whiny, she is supposedly an Asian woman who grew up in the west. You would expect that that would give her a mature outlook of cultural differences, specially between oriental and western.
But she whines about everything in Hong Kong and can't even see the adventure of just being in another part of the world. Any creative individual would be having an inspiration * in a place like Hong Kong, so many visual stimuli and so much materials and avenue to work with. Also, FASHION!!! (which is supposedly her interest). I was also severely put off by how she acted like she lost her appetite when another couple sat beside them in the same table (a common scene in HK that I also found surprising). She could have been surprised, maybe laugh about it later, but not act like she owns the table, or the restaurant!
Secondly, western (or shall I say, American) TV shows can be a discussion between inter-racial couple but this movie should have researched enough to know that not all Asian countries are their exotic stereotype. How do you think a channel like "Hits" (re-runs of old American 80's and 90's TV show favourites) have a lot of followers in Asia?
Thirdly, why was she so surprise finding a knock-off of her toy??? every designer know the risk of their design being copied, especially in Hong Kong (if she works in Hong Kong, chances are that they make their toys in China! Hello, over-runs?!)
The guy is a typical stereotype of supposedly laid-back American expat who tries to play it cool all the time because he has very low self esteem and wants everyone to think he is interesting and cool. And the girl tries hard to complain about anything Hong Kong (or Asian) as if to prefer the west makes her so much better than Asians who grew up in Asia.
My point is, why would you set a movie in a foreign country (even include the name in the title) so that the characters can complain about it?
To me, it just seems like a mediocre attempt to create a supposedly unique love story with an indie feel. The best they can do was dress it up with such "hipster" style angles, give good indie music background matched with exotic eastern scenes, but completely failed to create more intelligent and endearing characters and story plot.
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