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[CINEMA VERITE] Life and love

Trivial Matters is loaded with Hong Kong's pop idols. PHOTO: COURTESY OF GROUP POWER

Based on short stories penned by director Pang Ho-cheung (彭浩翔), Trivial Matters (破事兒) is a series of vignettes on love, sex, friendship and as the title suggests, all the Trivial Matters in life. Entertaining, witty and sometimes downright absurd, the seven segments assemble several of Hong Kong's pop idols, who seem - from the delivery of the project - to be having a big, A-list ball.

A video recording of a couple talking about their sex life opens the film with Hong Kong entertainer Jan Lam (林海峰) starring as an off-screen therapist. The reenactment of the couple's bedroom activities by two other actors adds a comic punch to the otherwise "she says, he says" routine.

In the wake of Edison Chen's (陳冠希) sex photo scandal (in which hundreds of images featuring female Hong Kong stars in erotic poses with Chen were posted on the Internet), the segment offers a poignant comparison with real life: The star plays a dandy picking up girls at a nightclub.

Ah Wai - The Big Head, one of the most developed segments, stars Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) and her real-life boyfriend Juno Mak (麥浚龍). It portrays friendship not as an expression of loyalty and love but as a hodgepodge of selfishness, pride and carelessness.

Film Notes Trivial Matters (破事兒) DIRECTED BY: Pang Ho-cheung (彭浩翔) STARRING: Eason Chan (陳奕迅) as Chan; Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) as Ah Wai, Shawn Yue (余文樂) as the hitman-in-training; Chapman To (杜汶澤) as himself LANGUAGE: Cantonese and Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles RUNNING TIME: 90 MINUTES TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY

The subject of love is affectionately tackled in Recharge starring Chapman To (杜汶澤) as an actor who is addicted to paid sex. Junior, on the other hand, is a charming example of director Pang's absurd humor that stars Chinese director Feng Xiaogang (馮小剛) as a PR representative from an assassination firm and Shawn Yue (余文樂) as a hitman-in-training who enjoys smoking pot with his target.

The vignettes fluctuate between engaging viewers and drifting off, but still show Pang as a rising star who dares to produce something different from Hong Kong cinema's mainstream fare.
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