Love Is Not a Sin

A micro-budgeted indie, shot on DV in the semi-rural backwaters of Macau's Coloane, which runs rings around the teen romance genre to extremely diverting effect. Moon and her classmate Man-Man are neighbours and close friends; Moon begins to suspect that Man-Man's room is haunted, which leads to a suspicion that Man-Man is actually a boy, which leads to the mother of all adolescent crushes. Moon eventually leaves to study in Australia and, calling home, develops a telephone liaison (is it just her fantasy?) with a boy who claims to be Man-Man's long-lost twin. She finally returns to Macau to sort things out - and finds Man-Man telling tales of family secrets, but no trace of a brother. Anchored in intimist observation of teenage girls at their most foul-mouthed and unguarded (Chan has two daughters), the film takes a freewheeling delight in its narrative ambiguities and uncertainties, and delivers a refreshingly original, open-minded perspective on the first stirrings of desire.