General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Yesterday Once More (龙凤斗)

Yesterday Once More (龙凤斗, also known by its original working title 贼公贼婆 and the romanization Lung fung dau) is a 2004 Hong Kong romantic comedy-heist film directed and produced by Johnnie To (杜琪峰), starring Andy Lau (刘德华) and Sammi Cheng (郑秀文) as a divorced couple of jewel thieves who resume their rivalry, and romance, over a stolen necklace¹^•². It was the third screen pairing of Lau and Cheng under To, after Needing You (孤男寡女) and Love on a Diet (瘦身男女), and the trio announced it as their final collaboration³.

Key fact	Detail
Director / producer	Johnnie To (杜琪峰)¹
Screenwriters	The Hermit (隐士) and Au Kin-yee (欧健儿); Baidu Baike also credits Wai Ka-fai (韦家辉)¹^•⁴
Cast	Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, Jenny Hu, Carl Ng, Gordon Lam¹
Technical details	2004, color, 35mm, Cantonese, 98 minutes; cinematography by Cheng Siu-keung, editing by David Richardson¹^•⁵
Production companies	Milkyway Image and Media Asia Films⁵
Release	14 October 2004, in Hong Kong and mainland China simultaneously⁴
Hong Kong box office	HK$15.47 million, the year's sixth-highest⁴

Spoilers

Plot

In the public's eyes, Mr and Mrs To (Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng) are a wealthy, respectable Hong Kong couple; in fact both are accomplished thieves who steal jewels from millionaires¹. The couple divorced after a dispute over dividing their loot¹.

After the divorce, Mrs To is courted by Steve (Carl Ng), a rich young man who proposes with his family's heirloom jewels. His mother Mrs Allen (Jenny Hu), seeing that Mrs To loves jewels more than her son, sets harsh conditions before releasing them; Mrs To agrees on the surface while secretly planning to steal the jewels⁶. Just as her plan succeeds, a second party snatches the jewels with an identical technique: her ex-husband Mr To⁶. Mrs To travels to Italy to confront him, and the two resume a cat-and-mouse game in which he, still in love with her, makes her win games to learn the jewels' whereabouts⁶.

The light caper gives way to a darker resolution. The pair reconcile, both claim to be terminally ill, and Mr To suddenly disappears; when Steve again proposes with family jewels and they are stolen once more, Mrs To realizes what has happened¹. In the film's final movement, a lawyer transfers Mr To's entire estate to her name, and she understands that he has died and left her the hope that he was still alive⁷. The Festival des 3 Continents notes that under the guise of mainstream comedy the film hides a complex construction that emerges at the denouement, giving the story an admirable symmetry⁵.

Production and the "golden trio"

Yesterday Once More reunited what the Hong Kong press called the "iron triangle" or "golden combination" of director Johnnie To with Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, whose earlier films Needing You and Love on a Diet had been major box-office successes and earned the two actors a reputation as the screen's perfect match³. Before release, the three announced they would not work together again, making this the final film of the partnership; To described it as the concluding chapter of the Lau-Cheng screen romance he had built across the two earlier films³.

To framed the story as a mature love story rather than a courtship plot: not two people falling in love, but a couple who must learn to value each other after long familiarity³. The Hong Kong Film Archive's synopsis describes the film as a heist picture shot in Italy with flamboyance, incorporating the remarriage narrative of romantic comedy while touching on sexual attraction versus sexual tension¹.

The film was originally titled 贼公贼婆 and scheduled for September 2004, but after the director and producer were unsatisfied with some comic scenes and unsure how mainland audiences would receive them, reshoots pushed the release to October⁴. It was To's third film of 2004, following Breaking News (大事件) and Throw Down (柔道龙虎榜)⁸.

Release and box office

The film passed mainland censorship without content changes and premiered in Beijing on 14 October 2004, opening across Asia thereafter³. In its first five days it took RMB 5 million on the mainland and HK$6.5 million in Hong Kong, topping the local chart, for a nationwide first-week total above RMB 10 million⁴. Its Hong Kong run finished at HK$15.47 million, the sixth-highest of the year⁴.

Later releases included Taiwan (15 October 2004), Singapore (21 October 2004), Thailand (5 May 2005), Argentina (28 June 2007), and a mainland re-release on 10 February 2018².

Reception

Critical response was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 66% Tomatometer from two critic reviews, with an audience score based on more than 500 ratings⁹. The South China Morning Post found the acting of Lau and Cheng natural and fluid but judged the film lacking in creativity¹⁰. The reviewer Kozo of LoveHKFilm wrote that the film departs from the trio's earlier work by making the leads sophisticated ex-thieves who spar archly rather than fall in love, and called it a mixed bag whose premise is too clever for its own good, though the actors bring practiced chemistry¹¹. A recurring point among viewers is the tonal shift of the ending: the breezy caper closes on a melancholy revelation that changes the film's meaning⁹.

The Hong Kong Film Archive screened the film in 2021 as part of a retrospective program, describing it as the most unusual of the To-Lau-Cheng romantic works, a stylish caper that deconstructs romantic attraction while leaving a lingering melancholy¹.

References

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 2003 to 2004 › Titles M to Y

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

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