General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

A Moment of Romance (天若有情)

A Moment of Romance (天若有情) is a 1990 Hong Kong film directed by Benny Chan and produced by Johnnie To, starring Andy Lau and Jacklyn Wu.¹ It tells the love story of Wah Dee, an orphaned underworld getaway driver played by Lau, and Jojo, a young woman from a wealthy family played by Wu, and is regarded as a classic of Hong Kong cinema.¹ Its signature image of Lau in a tuxedo riding a motorcycle at night with Wu in a white bridal gown behind him has been copied many times, and the character's name "Wah Dee" stuck to Lau himself as a nickname.¹ The film earned HK$12,899,353 in Hong Kong, and at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1991 Ng Man-tat won Best Supporting Actor.³^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title / release	天若有情; Hong Kong premiere 14 June 1990; also released in South Korea on 13 October 1990²
Director / producer	Benny Chan's directorial debut; produced by Johnnie To, who also helped set up some of the scenes¹
Cast	Andy Lau (Wah Dee), Jacklyn Wu (Jojo), Ng Man-tat (Tai Po / Rambo), Tommy Wong Kwong-leung¹
Box office	HK$12,899,353 in Hong Kong from 14 June to 26 July 1990³
Awards	Best Supporting Actor, 10th Hong Kong Film Awards (1991), for Ng Man-tat; nominations for original film score, original film song, and new performer²
Theme song	Composed by Lo Tayu, lyrics by Douglas Li and Lee Mer, sung by Shirley Yuen Fung-ying¹
Restoration	4K restoration from the original camera negative released by Radiance Films in 2023⁴

Spoilers

Story

Wah Dee is a street orphan who earns his living as a racer for the local gang. During a bank heist, the getaway driver takes a young woman, Jojo, hostage, and when his accomplices want her silenced he protects her; the two, from very different social positions, begin a forbidden relationship.¹^•⁵ The Hong Kong Film Archive describes the film as creating "the simplest, purest love song amidst the cruelest world of violence and bloodshed," a cross-class romantic tragedy that is short yet striking.¹

The plot moves through flight and revenge. After the conflict with the rival boss played by Wong Kwong-leung (喇叭) grows deadly, a trap is set and Wah Dee's elder brother dies protecting him, and Wah Dee resolves to take revenge.² On the night he goes for revenge, Jojo escapes her mother, who is taking her to the airport; the two smash a bridal shop window, dress in wedding gown and tuxedo, and visit a church. While Jojo kneels in prayer, Wah Dee rides off to confront the boss, and the confrontation ends with both men dying.² The British Board of Film Classification rated the film "strong violence," noting stabbings and bullet impacts seen in close-up detail.⁶

Production background

A retirement tribute. The film began as a tribute project. In 1990 the veteran filmmaker Wong Tin-lam was retiring from television, and his eldest son Wong Jing, together with Wong Tin-lam's protégés including Ringo Lam and Johnnie To, planned a film whose earnings would serve as a retirement gift for him; To recommended Benny Chan, then working at ATV, as director, and To served as producer, with Wong Jing and Ringo Lam handling planning.⁷^•⁸ The Hong Kong Film Archive records that the film was made to commemorate Wong Tin-lam's retirement with several generations of his students working together, and that beyond serving as executive producer, Johnnie To personally helped set up some of the scenes.¹ An early draft by Wong Jing imagined a 1930s coming-of-age story, which was dropped because the period costumes, props, and sets would have raised the budget considerably.⁷

Casting. Established actresses such as Maggie Cheung, Rosamund Kwan, and Chingmy Yau were considered, but the producers wanted a fresh face opposite Lau; the role went to Jacklyn Wu, for whom this was her acting debut.⁷^•⁹ Lau later recalled friction with To on set: whenever Lau removed his helmet he would habitually tidy his fringe, which To felt did not fit the character, and the two clashed until a senior colleague intervened; they reconciled when Lau returned for the third film.¹⁰

Reception and legacy

The film earned HK$12,899,353 in Hong Kong during its initial run from 14 June to 26 July 1990.³ In Taiwan it was released under the title 追夢人 (Dream Chaser), and in South Korea it ran for nine months, making Lau and Wu highly famous there; Lau was voted South Korean audiences' "most popular star" for three consecutive years.¹⁰ At the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1991, Ng Man-tat won Best Supporting Actor, and the film received nominations for Best Original Film Score (Lo Tayu and Fabio Carli), Best Original Film Song, and Best New Performer (Wu).²

Imitation and parody. The motorcycle-and-bridal-gown scene has been parodied in many Hong Kong films, with well-known parodies in Needing You (2000) and Feel 100% (1996); the film is credited with generating many Hong Kong cinema clichés even though it was itself far from original in its ingredients of a disaffected youth, a "good girl" love interest, and a cartoonish villain.¹¹ Its images endure in parody, which critics interpret as evidence of cultural saturation: viewers find the allusion funny only because they already understand the feelings the wedding dress, motorbike, and nighttime roadway are meant to evoke.¹² The film's popularity in Taiwan is credited with directly boosting the growth of the island's motorcycle riding scene.¹³

Two sequels followed, both unrelated to the original in story, and Wu Chien-lien co-starred in each, one with Aaron Kwok and one with Andy Lau; the two original leads appear together again only in the third.¹¹^•¹⁴ In 2004, Lau and Wu reunited as a married couple in Jiang Hu, a casting choice made after audience surveys showed viewers still remembered their pairing in A Moment of Romance.¹⁵

Restoration and re-releases

The film has remained in circulation through restorations and festival screenings. Radiance Films released a 4K restoration from the original camera negative in 2023, with a new visual essay by the critic and Asian cinema specialist David Desser on the film's genre tropes and their use in Hong Kong cinema.⁴ The Hong Kong Film Archive screened it at the Hong Kong Museum of Art on 30 September and 28 October 2023.¹ A 4K restored version screened in the Chinese New Wave program of the 13th Beijing International Film Festival,¹⁶ and a 4K UHD collector's edition was released in China on 1 September 2024, presenting a 93-minute complete cut with Dolby Vision and HDR10 and both Cantonese and Mandarin soundtracks.¹⁷ On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 85% Tomatometer from five critics, with an audience rating of 4.1 out of 5 from more than 500 users.¹⁸ On Douban, the mainland Chinese rating platform, it scores 8.4 out of 10.¹⁹

Versions and runtime

Sources give different running times. The Hong Kong Film Archive lists 88 minutes,¹ while the BBFC classified the 1990 cinema version at 91 minutes 38 seconds and the 2023 Radiance home-entertainment version at 92 minutes 10 seconds.⁶ The film is in Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles in archive presentations.¹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026