Comrades: Almost a Love Story 甜蜜蜜 (1996): The Movie Where Two Migrants Loved Each Other for Nine Years, Lost Each Other Twice, and Found Each Other Again — Just in Time to Watch Teresa Teng Die
Full movie in Cantonese with English subtitles
The Film That Defined a Generation's Longing
Here's a film that starts with two strangers sitting back-to-back on a train to Hong Kong and ends with them staring at a TV screen in New York, listening to news of Teresa Teng's death. That's Comrades: Almost a Love Story — a 1996 Hong Kong romantic drama directed by Peter Chan, starring Leon Lai, Maggie Cheung, and Eric Tsang.
The film was a critical and commercial sensation. It won nine Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress. It also won Best Feature Film at the Golden Horse Awards and was named one of the "100 Best Chinese Motion Pictures" by the Hong Kong Film Awards Association.
On Douban, it holds an 8.6 with over 650,000 ratings. In 2015, it was re-released in mainland China after initial restrictions were lifted.
What Is It About?
The plot is a decade-long meditation on love, migration, and the impossibility of letting go.
Li Xiao-jun (Leon Lai) is a naive young man from Tianjin who moves to Hong Kong to make money and bring his fiancée, Fang Xiaoting, to the city. He's homesick, awkward, and speaks no Cantonese.
Li Qiao (Maggie Cheung) is a sharp, ambitious woman from Guangzhou who has already mastered Cantonese and dreams of becoming a "real Hong Konger." She sees Xiao-jun as a tool — someone to exploit for commissions and deliveries. But loneliness brings them together. They share a meal, a laugh, and eventually a bed.
The film tracks their relationship over nine years, against the backdrop of Hong Kong's 1987 stock market crash, the 1990 immigration wave, and the lead-up to the 1997 handover. They get rich. They lose everything. They separate. They reunite.
Xiao-jun marries Xiaoting. Li Qiao becomes the mistress of a triad boss known as Pao (Eric Tsang), who gives her money, protection, and a life she could never have imagined. But neither Xiao-jun nor Li Qiao can forget the other.
In the film's final act, Xiao-jun moves to New York to become a cook. Pao is killed in a mugging. Li Qiao, now an illegal immigrant in New York, sees Xiao-jun riding a bicycle through the streets. She chases him. She loses him.
Then, on May 8, 1995, they both stop in front of a TV display showing news of Teresa Teng's death. The song "Tian Mi Mi" plays. They turn to each other.
And they smile.
The Scene That Defines the Film
There's a moment in the film that has become legendary: Li Qiao identifying Pao's body in the morgue. He has a tattoo of a Mickey Mouse on his back — a joke he had made to cheer her up when she was feeling low.
She sees the tattoo. She laughs. She cries. She does both at the same time.
It's a scene that requires no dialogue. Maggie Cheung's face says everything. Peter Chan has called it "the best performance I've ever seen."
The Cast That Made It Work
Leon Lai as Li Xiao-jun — the naive migrant who can't let go. It's one of his most iconic performances.
Maggie Cheung as Li Qiao — the ambitious woman who learns that money isn't everything. She won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress for this role.
Eric Tsang as Pao — the triad boss with a heart of gold. He won Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
Ivy Ho wrote the script — a delicate, time-jumping narrative that became a model for Hong Kong romantic dramas.
Peter Chan directed — a film that the New Yorker described as "one of the great movies about immigration."
Why It Still Matters
Comrades: Almost a Love Story is a film about migration, identity, and the impossibility of forgetting. It's about people who leave home and can never quite come back — and about the ones they leave behind.
It's also a film about Teresa Teng. Her music runs through the film like a heartbeat. Her death in 1995 is the film's climax — a moment that unites two people who have spent nine years missing each other.
As one critic put it: "Comrades: Almost a Love Story is not a love story. It's a film about everything that makes a love story impossible."
Final Thought
Comrades: Almost a Love Story is a film about a man who moves to Hong Kong to make money and a woman who moves to Hong Kong to become someone. It's about a train, a bicycle, and a song that won't let them go.
Have you seen Comrades: Almost a Love Story? What's your favorite scene — the morgue, the bicycle chase, or the final reunion? Let me know in the comments.
Tom De · The Movie Prince 🎬
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