Review | Measure in Love movie review: Angela Yuen, Greg Hsu in thoroughly baffling fantasy romance

Benny Kung’s dystopian fairy tale in which humanity is separated across two sides of the ocean looks good but leaves basic logic far behind

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Greg Hsu (left) and Angela Yuen in a still from Measure in Love (category IIA, Cantonese and Mandarin versions available), directed by Benny Kung.

Published: 3:28pm, 1 Oct 2025Updated: 4:00pm, 1 Oct 2025

1.5/5 stars

A high-concept fantasy romance set in a human world that has been physically split into two, Measure in Love asks its audience to succumb to the supposedly poetic swooning of its star-crossed lovers – only to make it a very tall order indeed with a criminally underdeveloped set-up and an unfathomably illogical plot.

Marking the feature debut of experienced Hong Kong assistant director Benny Kung Siu-ping, this dystopian fairy tale co-scripted by Kung, producer Sylvia Chang Ai-chia (whose Love Education he worked on) and Bernyce Li Pak-kiu imagines a “gravity wall” separating humanity across two sides of the ocean – flat earth conspiracy theorists rejoice!

On one side of the divide is the Aurora zone, a prosperous and spotless metropolis where our protagonist, the trainee doctor Ann-Jean (Angela Yuen Lai-lam, The Narrow Road), lives. Its counterpart is the Evergreen zone, a barren police state lacking many of life’s essentials.

In a premise that evokes the inhuman impact of capitalism but says nothing meaningful about it, we are told that Evergreen has a weaker gravitational pull and a bizarrely condensed notion of time: one day in Aurora equals one year in Evergreen, a quirk the film all too fleetingly explains makes it a great place to set up factories.

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