Metade Fumaça

Likeable, funny and finally quite touching, Ip's second feature is at heart an 'odd couple' movie. Roy (Tsang) returns to HK after living in Brazil for many years for a showdown with an old enemy, his rival for the affections of a beautiful girl. He enlists young street punk Smokey (Tse) to help and winds up staying in his apartment. It turns out that Roy has Alzheimer's and that his account of his 'exile' is a self-serving fantasy, but in the process of straightening matters out the film gives several characters small personal epiphanies and ends on a high note. (The title is Brazilian-Portuguese for 'Half a Cigarette', referring to a motif in Roy's memories.