A Moment of Romance is a 1990 action/ romance movie directed by Benny Chan (New Police Story, Raging Fire and The White Storm) and starring Andy Lau (Internal Affairs, House of Flying Daggers and The Warlords), Chien-Lien Wu (Eat Drink Man Woman, The Phantom Lover and Dragon Town Story), Man-Tat Ng (Shaolin Soccer, Fight Back to School and God of Gamblers Part 3: Back to Shanghai) and Kwong-Leung Wong ( The Killer, City on Fire and Prison on Fire).

Wah Dee (Lau) is approached to drive the getaway car in a jewellery heist for a man named Trumpet (Wong), however, the robbery goes wrong and Wah Dee abducts a young woman, Jo-Jo (Wu) to aid his escape. After meeting up with the other gang members in a safe place, Trumpet demands that Wah-Dee kills the young woman, however he resists and promises to take her back. Wah Dee is arrested for the kidnapping, however, Jo-Jo refuses to betray him to the police by refusing to identify him as her kidnapper. The pair start to fall in love with one another, however, after the Godfather of the Triad gang is whacked by Trumpet and Wah Dee is beaten up, he worries that if Jo-Jo remains within close proximity to him, she will find herself at the mercy of the Triads. Wah Dee decides to head to his grandfather’s home in Macau to hide from her. After speaking to Rambo (Ng) Jo-Jo manages to track Wah Dee down and the couple spend time together getting to know one another while falling deeper and deeper in love.

After returning from Macau, Jo-Jo’s parents meet them at the customs having decided that the family will emigrate to Canada. They threaten to prosecute Wah Dee unless she agrees to go with them, which she does, however she decides to see Wah-Dee one final time. After finding him drunk and taking care of him, she confesses her undying love for him in a letter, which she leaves in his apartment before she leaves. After the Godfather of the Triad gang dies, Trumpet calls a meeting where he announces his intention to become the new leader of the gang. A fight breaks out, and Wah Dee’s boss Brother Seven is killed by Trumpet, Wah Dee escapes with the aid of Rambo and goes to find Jo-Jo before she leaves with the intent of getting married.

A Moment of Romance is a classic of Chinese cinema, a re-imaging of Romeo and Juliet with a subplot about gang warfare. It’s a darkly violent action movie and a tender love story all in one. The performances are excellent, Andy Lau is superb in the lead role as Wah Dee and Wu is excellent as his love interest, the beautiful and innocent, Jo-Jo. The script is expertly written, and everyone involved in bringing this movie to the screen puts in a real shift. The camerawork is excellent, with some outstanding actions sequences that rival the very best that Chinese action cinema has to offer, whilst the movie’s intensely violent climax will leave viewers gripped.
This new Blu-ray release from Radiance features a gorgeous new 4k restoration of the movie with a rare archival interview with director Benny Chan, an audio commentary by Djeng and a video essay by Asian cinema expert, David Desser. This release also features a comprehensively put-together booklet with essays from Sean Gilman and Tony Williams and some great photographs.

Overall, this is an outstanding release for an outstanding movie, one that should be known by many more people than it is. This new Radiance release is limited to 3,000 copies so grab one while you can because I don’t foresee them lasting long once word gets out just how good this release is.