# Needing You (孤男寡女)
**Needing You** (孤男寡女, also romanized *Goo laam gwa lui*) is a 2000 Hong Kong romantic comedy directed by [Johnnie To](https://www.edgepedia.org/johnnie-to) and Wai Ka-fai, starring [Andy Lau](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-lau) and [Sammi Cheng](https://www.edgepedia.org/sammi-cheng) as two office workers whose working relationship turns into romance.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) Adapted from a radio play the two leads had performed, it became the highest-grossing Hong Kong film of 2000 and made Sammi Cheng a star in her home market.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) • [2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/needing-you-vcd-hong-kong-version/1000024807-0-0-0-en/info.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Directors | Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, co-founders of Milkyway Image[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) |
| Stars | Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, who also performed the source radio play[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) |
| Release | Hong Kong 22 June 2000; Japan 31 October 2000; South Korea 11 November 2000[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) |
| Box office | About HK$35 million in Hong Kong, the territory's top-grossing film of 2000[4](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E5%AD%A4%E7%94%B7%E5%AF%A1%E5%A5%B3) • [2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/needing-you-vcd-hong-kong-version/1000024807-0-0-0-en/info.html) |
| Recognition | Best Director nomination for To and Wai at the 20th Hong Kong Film Awards (2001)[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) |
| Production | Milkyway Image, China Star Entertainment, and One Hundred Years of Film; producer Charles Heung[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) • [1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) |
| Languages | Cantonese, Mandarin, and English[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Andy (Andy Lau), known as Wah-siu, is the sales manager of a computer circuit board company. Efficient and well connected at work, he is at a loss in love, as his divorce from Lisa shows.[8](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/needingyou.html) Kinki (Sammi Cheng) is a dutiful office assistant transferred into his division, a romantic who longs for marriage but is stuck in a static relationship with her boyfriend Dan; Andy initially thinks her emotionally unstable after overhearing her argue with Dan on the phone.[8](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/needingyou.html)
Working together changes both impressions: Kinki sees Andy's dedication to his job, and Andy comes to rely on her long hours and loyalty, though their closeness becomes the office's favorite gossip.[8](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/needingyou.html) Complications arrive from outside. Andy's former love Ying, unhappy in her marriage, tries to win him back and, sensing Kinki as a rival, introduces her to Roger, a wealthy American internet entrepreneur who falls for Kinki at first sight.[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) Meanwhile Andy's boss Ronald plots to remove him from the company, and Kinki helps him gather evidence to clear his name.[8](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/needingyou.html) In the climax, Roger proposes and Kinki is to be married on a cruise ship bound for the United States; Andy arrives too late to do more than watch the ship leave, but Kinki ultimately returns to him.[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml)
The film is built around office life rather than melodrama. Critics noted its depiction of the office gossip network, with rumors spreading through the workplace, and its comedy drawn from small incidents such as Kinki's habit of scrubbing the office toilet when emotionally upset.[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2001/festival-reports/hkiff_report_lisa/) • [6](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1557348?commTag=true) It also contains many references to *A Moment of Romance* (1990), the romantic drama in which Andy Lau played a gangster and which Johnnie To produced, with the jokes directed at Lau's own established screen persona.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/needing_you.htm)
## Origins and production
The film began as a radio short drama on Hong Kong's Metro Radio, performed by Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng; To and Wai Ka-fai adapted it for the screen and kept the two performers in the lead roles.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) • [5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/needing_you.htm) The radio playwright, Tang Kei-ming, described the premise as a love story between an unglamorous man and a woman unlucky in love, ordinary office workers rather than a conventional handsome leading pair.[6](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1557348?commTag=true)
It was an early commercial venture for Milkyway Image, the company To and Wai had co-founded in 1996 to balance personal style with commercial appeal.[7](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/English/Johnnie-TO_e.pdf) To had just won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director for *The Mission* (1999), and *Needing You* marked his move into mainstream romantic comedy.[6](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1557348?commTag=true) Production companies were Milkyway Image, China Star Entertainment Limited, and One Hundred Years of Film, with Charles Heung producing.[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) • [1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) The screenplay is credited to Wai Ka-fai, Yau Nai-hoi, and Cindy Tang, with cinematography by Cheng Siu-keung and editing by Law Wing-kheong.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you)
## Reception and box office
Released in Hong Kong on 22 June 2000, the film ran for 38 days and earned about HK$35 million, with one source giving the precise figure of HK$35,210,000.[10](https://ent.sina.com.cn/film/chinese/2000-08-04/12534.html) • [4](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E5%AD%A4%E7%94%B7%E5%AF%A1%E5%A5%B3) This made it the highest-grossing Hong Kong film of 2000, and its total was exceeded among recent Hong Kong releases only by *The Storm Riders* and *Who Am I?* from 1998.[2](https://www.yesasia.com/global/needing-you-vcd-hong-kong-version/1000024807-0-0-0-en/info.html) • [10](https://ent.sina.com.cn/film/chinese/2000-08-04/12534.html) It outgrossed the competing release *And I Hate You So* and the [Lunar New Year](https://www.edgepedia.org/lunar-new-year) hit *Tokyo Raiders* in the same market.[11](https://ent.sina.com.cn/film/foreign/2000-09-01/15295.html)
The commercial result mattered for the industry as well as the film. Hong Kong's box office had fallen to a low point in 1999, and commentators credited To and Wai with leading the local market's recovery in 2000; the film's success also opened the account of the One Hundred Years of Film company and made white-collar romantic comedy a fashionable genre.[12](https://www.artscritics.hk/?a=doc&id=490) At the 20th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2001, To and Wai received a Best Director nomination.[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) Reviewers praised the chemistry between Lau and Cheng; the lovehkfilm review called it the most satisfying Hong Kong film of the year at the halfway point of 2000 and singled out Cheng's performance.[5](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/needing_you.htm) The film later screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2007 and at MoMA in New York.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) • [13](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/9886)
## Legacy
The film established Sammi Cheng as a Hong Kong box-office star and began a run of romantic comedies that To and Wai co-directed between 2000 and 2003, including *Love on a Diet* (2001), which reunited the two leads.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you) • [14](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/English/WAI-Ka-fai_e.pdf) Together with *Love on a Diet* and the later *Don't Go Breaking My Heart* (2010), it is counted among To's "men and women" series of urban romance films.[15](https://journal.kci.go.kr/cccs/archive/articlePdf?artiId=ART001967825) When To and Wai promoted *Don't Go Breaking My Heart* in 2011, To described *Needing You* and *Love on a Diet* as more purely Hong Kong-local stories, in contrast with the later film's mainland protagonist.[16](https://dw-media.tkww.hk/epaper/tkp/20110303/C11_Screen.pdf)
Runtime listings differ: MoMA and the 1905.com database give 101 minutes, while festival and distributor catalogs such as IFFR and Fortune Star list 104 minutes.[13](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/9886) • [3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml) • [1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you)
## References
1. [Needing You, International Film Festival Rotterdam (2007 program)](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2007/films/needing-you)
2. [Needing You (VCD) (Hong Kong Version), YesAsia](https://www.yesasia.com/global/needing-you-vcd-hong-kong-version/1000024807-0-0-0-en/info.html)
3. [孤男寡女 详细资料, 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/1986234.shtml)
4. [孤男寡女 (2000年杜琪峯、韋家輝執導電影), 中文百科全書](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E5%AD%A4%E7%94%B7%E5%AF%A1%E5%A5%B3)
5. [Needing You... (2000), review by Kozo, lovehkfilm.com](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/needing_you.htm)
6. [想当年丨最好的办公室恋爱喜剧，我心中一定是《孤男寡女》, 澎湃新闻 (2016)](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1557348?commTag=true)
7. [Hong Kong Filmmakers Search: Johnnie TO, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/English/Johnnie-TO_e.pdf)
8. [Needing You, Movie Catalogue, Fortune Star Media](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/needingyou.html)
9. [The 25th Hong Kong International Film Festival – A Report, Senses of Cinema (2001)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2001/festival-reports/hkiff_report_lisa/)
10. [《孤男寡女》弱市劲收3500万, 南方网 via Sina (2000)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/film/chinese/2000-08-04/12534.html)
11. ["孤男寡女"排战"特工队", 新快报 via Sina (2000)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/film/foreign/2000-09-01/15295.html)
12. [2000年香港電影總論：香港電影新氣象, 藝評香港 (2002)](https://www.artscritics.hk/?a=doc&id=490)
13. [Needing You… (孤男寡女). 2000, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/9886)
14. [Hong Kong Filmmakers Search: WAI Ka-fai, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/English/WAI-Ka-fai_e.pdf)
15. [두치펑 감독의 "남녀시리즈" 영화에 나타난 '홍콩'과 '중국', 中國文化硏究 第27輯](https://journal.kci.go.kr/cccs/archive/articlePdf?artiId=ART001967825)
16. [《單身男女》報道, 大公報 (2011)](https://dw-media.tkww.hk/epaper/tkp/20110303/C11_Screen.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2000 to 2002 › Comedies of 2000*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license