MONTHS after postponing its release due to the pandemic, “I’m Livin’ It,” a Hong Kong movie focusing on the homeless staying overnight at fast-food restaurants, will finally open in Chinese mainland cinemas Sept. 17.

Making his directing debut is Wong Hing-fan, who comes from a long-established career as an assistant director in predominantly commercial Hong Kong movies, and whose timely social theme is tinged with too many warm and fuzzy moments for comfort.

The most distinctive and convincing thing about the film is the way so many of the stories about these down-and-outers end: not with some happy twist of fate, or superhuman force of will, but more realistically in even greater misery and comfortless death.

Aaron Kwok and Miriam Yeung effortlessly play out an unconfessed, non-starting romance. Kwok plays Bowen, a former high-rolling finance executive who gets jailed for embezzlement. Unemployable after his release from prison, he has been living on the street, too ashamed to go home to his senile mother and sister. The latter has been paying off his debts for the last 10 years, touching on the theme of family honor that runs through Ja Poon’s screenplay.

The one really effective instance of solidarity occurs when Jane (Yeung), an underpaid nightclub singer, sells her beloved racks of glamorous stage costumes to pay Bowen’s urgent medical bills. Her feelings for Bowen, though never put into words, lend an undercurrent of believable emotion to a film that can often seem coy and formulaic. And the downbeat ending is right on target: Kwok draws a convincing end to Bowen’s woes, getting the tone just right.

Kwok said in an earlier interview that the movie meant a lot for him as it highlights the plight of the homeless. “I play the role of a disillusioned man who struggles to survive in the margins of society. The role was painful and restrained. This is a work from the heart. I hope more viewers will see such an outstanding movie. This is the most important thing for the film market at this stage,” he said.(SD-Agencies)