And then there were three; the number refers here not so much to love triangles as the fact that L For Love, L For Lies is the third movie in three years from director-scriptwriter Patrick Kong (aka Yip Lim Sum) and producer Paco Wong that stars Olympic swimmer turned singer-actor Alex Fong Lik-Sun and fellow entertainment idol Stephy Tang, and also includes increasingly familiar faces like Tang’s ex-Cookies band-mate Miki Yeung. Still, love triangles do feature prominently in this at times surprising drama which is a considerable step up in quality from Kong’s previous efforts, Marriage With a Fool (2006) and the critically panned but still commercially successful Love Is Not All Around (2007).

Trusting Bobo (Stephy Tang) and not-so-trusting Man (Leila Tong) are good friends who don’t meet up much but provide sympathetic ears for each other over the phone. Kiki (Alice Zeng) – who is happy to inform one and all that “I can trust no one” – is a former schoolmate of Bobo who proves to be not a good friend at all, especially after she seduces Bobo’s beau, dessert-shopowner Chun (Stephen Wong), away from her. Angry and heartbroken, Bobo decides to seek revenge by getting a charmer of a conman called Keung (Alex Fong Lik-Sun) to scam Kiki – a greedy woman who loves money as much she enjoys depriving another female of her boyfriend – and maybe even get Chun running back to her.

L For Love, L For Lies regularly inter-cuts between scenes from Bobo and others’ lives, notably beer girl Man and her boyfriend Fung (Terry Wu). A previous abusive relationship has left Man very insecure, prompting her to want to constantly check up on and over-control Fung. That causes him to turn from her to a fellow stall operator named Mandy (Miki Yeung). The problem, though, is that Mandy has another man and thus can only offer to be Fung’s ‘back-up’ lover...

Veering in its focus from one character to another, often in quick confusion-inducing succession, L For Love, L For Lies is an ensemble piece that gives many individuals chances to shine. In particular, Wong Cho Lam evokes much appreciative laughter with his over-the-top cameo as an eccentric loan officer but overall the support by various recognizable faces in cameo appearances is one of this relationship drama’s many positives.

At the same time, however, the two main stars do deserve their top billing. Building on her appearances towards the end of last year in the markedly different In Love With the Dead and Trivial Matters, Stephy Tang is revealing herself to be quite the versatile acting talent. But leading man Alex Fong Lik-Sun it is who truly shows with an unexpectedly layered, affecting performance in this film that he’s much more than just a pretty face.

Yvonne Teh