The melancholy Candy runs the Half Mortal, a trendy bar in Hong Kong. She hires Paul; Stella, a part-time employee who's a college student in psychology, trains him. He has a gift for mixing the perfect drink to fit each customer's emotional needs. His own emotions, however, are complex: his father, an alcoholic, has died recently; he's abandoned his studies; and, although he's likes Stella, he's a tyro with women and inarticulate with her. Is alcohol the key to happiness, as Paul wonders; does it simply change peoples' personality, as Stella thinks; or, is it just there, as Candy's business sense tells her? Can Paul and Stella blend into something smooth?
Acting
Endy Chow's wounded restraint—he says everything while saying nothing.
Direction
Yau and Long capture Hong Kong's nocturnal ache like few others.
Director
Herman Yau
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film is so obscure it has zero TMDB ratings and barely exists on English-language internet—consider yourself a cult member now.
Herman Yau was simultaneously making extreme Category III horror; this quiet drama shows his actual range before 'The Legend Is Born: Ip Man' made him respectable.
HK
