Tiramisu

"Tiramisu" is a romantic ghost story starring Nicholas Tse Ting Fung, Karena Lam Ka Yun, Eason Chan Yik Sun, and Candy Lo Hao Yum. What is Tiramisu? Tiramisu is a pudding-like dessert and was noted in the movie that during war time at Italy, when the men went out to war, their wives would take biscuits and make a cake-like dessert to let their husbands take with them to remember their love. Nowadays, you can buy tiramisu and it's mostly made with eggs, mascarpone cheese, ladyfingers, cream, espresso coffee, liquor, and sprinkled with some shaved chocolate. Its history is tied to Venice but it's the first time I heard about this war time history. As to the relevance of tiramisu to this movie itself, I thought there really wasn't much.

Nicholas Tse plays Fung who is a mail delivery boy who lost his hearing after his father died. Eason Chan plays his buddy who can't make a relationship last for more than 3 days and is obsessed with dating girls with the right horoscope signs. Karena Lam plays Jane, a dancer who is training with her best friend Tina (Candy Lo) and a team of dancers for a major competition.

Fung and Jane just have a lot of chance encounters on the streets, train, and are mutually attracted to each other--no words were ever exchanged between though, just shy expressions. Wanting to return a book that Jane left on the subway train, Fung goes to her place, only to find out she died in an accident and is now a ghost. She doesn't want to reincarnate yet because she still has a dream to fulfill--namely watch her teammates win the dancing finals. Jane asks to stay at Fung's place because the ghost cops are out for her spirit.

Predictably, Fung and Jane fall in love but of course, they are not meant to be by the sheer fact that she's a ghost.

The black ghost cop riders give the definite impression of the Black Riders from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings movie, with their black attire, dark horses, and the chasing scenes. Unlike the Black Riders, they are not good or evil but just doing their job and even have a heart when they are touched by the love between Jane and Fung to give them a break.

The strong point of the movie is not the romantic aspect because that just seemed to be another commercial selling point. Rather, the friendship between Jane and her best friend Tina and the dancing team's comradry and support. Those scenes are the only emotional ones and give depth to the movie. The dancing scenes were also bonuses to the movie.

Eason's role is there only to give some comic relief as he plays his typical dopey guy role. Nicholas also looks like he has lost some weight as his face looked drawn at times.

My label for this movie is one that tries to have a meaning with a symbolic title but never develops that aspect. Ok film to watch but not any award winning material.