Search - Yesterday Once More on DVD

Love between thieves

Pippa Lee | Honolulu, HI USA | 04/17/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"After the charming "Needing You", Director Johnnie To and pop stars Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng team again in "Yesterday Once More." In "Yesterday Once More", Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng play Mr. and Mrs. Do, a rich couple that indulge in their kleptomania by stealing expensive bottles of wines and jewelry. On what appears to be a whim, Mr. Do divorces his wife. Two years later, she is engaged to marry Steve. However, Steve's mother suspects that Mrs. Do is after her son for the family jewelry. And she is right. Mrs. Do plots to steal the heirloom necklace but it is her ex-husband who steals the precious piece from right under their noses. For the rest of the movie Mrs. Do tries to find out where her ex-husband has hidden the necklace and why he divorced her in the first place. Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng are great but the movie suffers from one too many scenes that although show that Mr. and Mrs. Do belong together, they are there just to show off the locations and do little to help move the story along.
I bought this DVD under the impression that it was a comedy. And it was so for about 3/4 of the movie. However, when I got to the ending, my first reaction was: Wait! Wait a minute, what happened here just now? I'm not going to give away the ending but as Andy Lau's character says, "Guessing and being sure are not the same." So, if you don't like the ending, it is still vague enough to open a door to a different interpretation. And as for me, I like to think that there is one thing for sure: what Mr. Do did, he did for love to his ex-wife."

(2.5 STARS) Mr. & Mrs. Thief and the Game of Love: Slightly

Tsuyoshi | Kyoto, Japan | 02/23/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"`Yesterday Once More' is a romantic film about two professional thieves, Mr. To and Mrs. To (Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng) and the ever-changing love/hate relations between the lovers playing the game of love through stealing. Prolific director Johnnie To, usually known for stylish action films, gives us a romance about two lovers holding wine glasses, which re-unites the stars of `Needing You.' I found `Yesterday Once More' is a little disappointing because of its weak script, but it still has some good things in it.

Two years after the divorce with Mr. To over an `unfair' deal about stolen diamonds, we see gorgeous Mrs. To is about to jilt a rich mama's boy Steve. Steve offers an expensive necklace of his mother to her to be with her. She accepts his offer, and promises to marry him, but Mr. To, who hates the idea of her marrying again, steals the heirloom before she fakes a theft of it. Mrs. To knows exactly who did that, and Mr. and Mrs. To meet again and begin another game of love, loving or deceiving each other.

With whatever genre of film you might associate Johnnie To, it is clear that `Yesterday Once More' is not his best. The chemistry between Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng is there, but is not fully used, partly because we are not allowed to know much about the characters, or partly because their story is told in a very whimsical way. The director insists on the old-fashioned Hollywood-type glamour with the location of Italy, cars, furniture, wine, and race track, but they don't enhance the romantic mood of the two main leads who are themselves good, if not best. To make matters worse, the caper stories of the film are only rudimentary, nothing interesting except the last one.

In the second half of the film, the story (with a surprise or two) suddenly takes on a new and sadder look. It was not until then that the film starts to show the subtlety of the complicated relations between the man and woman. The last intricate con-game played by them represents the nature of their love effectively, but by then the film is nearly over.

Like Miike Takashi, another Asian talent, Johnnie To may be too prolific a director, making three or even four films in a year. As fan of his films, I'm not particularly against his making so many films, but as far as romantic films go, things are different. They need more sophisticated story, and such a story (or script) is hard to find. I don't say this is bad, but if you like the stars or the director, I'd rather recommend `Needing You.'
"

Horrible - don't waste your time or money

Soapy11 | 08/01/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It is hard to sympathize or relate to any of the characters in this movie. All of them are so stereotypical. Mrs. Do (the character played by Hong Kong singer/actress Sammy Cheung) reminds me a little of Scarlett O'Hara: pretty, rich, spoiled rotten, whiny, trampling over all the men in her life until she loses the one she loves ... with the difference that while Scarlett eventually changed her ways, Mrs. Do never did. Then, there are the other stereotypes: the scary mother-in-law-to-be, the momma's boy (Steve), the gay detectives, the rich enigmatic tycoon (Mr. Do). Watch this movie only for a glimpse into how the rich in Hong Kong live and some nice background of the city itself. For anything else, don't bother. Completely unsatisfying as a movie and with annoying characters to boot."

Love Stuff

Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 01/11/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Yesterday Once More" is a film that I really liked. Hong Kong director Johnny To gives Andy Lau the chance to perform in an amazing role and performance. Lau has starred in over 60 films and probably should be a household name in the U.S. too. I really enjoyed "Fulltime Killer," and this film gives him a chance to show quite a different side of his acting talents. He starts as a kind of double-o-seven rich playboy who steals for kicks. Highly intelligent, he pulls a rich heist with his wife who apparently tries to double-deal him. He divorces her but does not stop loving her. As Mrs. Do, Sammi Cheung is an attractive vivacious, somewhat emotionally vacuous, playgirl thief. When she announces her engagement to Steve, a deadheaded young man in search of a personality, she does so just to steal the family jewels -- and we're talking diamonds. This brings her ex-husband Andy Lau into play that devises an elaborate heist, all done with the objective of finding out whether his wife really loves him. What I most connected with in the film is the tremendous sense of love that the husband conveys for his wife, amidst a menagerie of entertainingly wild characters and absurd plot points about thieves. Watch the film for the 007 motif, enjoy its comedy, but ultimately prepare for the emotional wallop of some great love stuff. This is kind of like the Hong Kong version of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." Enjoy!"