True Love, for Once in My Life: A Story of Devotion and Heartbreak

Imagine being a middle-aged woman in Hong Kong, married to your first love with two grown children, and discovering that your husband has fallen in love with another woman during his business trips to Guangzhou, China. For many, this revelation would lead to a painful breakup, followed by a journey of emotional healing. However, Sabrina Tse Shuk-fun, the executive producer of this film, chose a different path. Despite her husband’s affair, she continued to play an important role in his life.

After they divorced, Tse found herself caring for her ex-husband during his final months as he battled cancer. This was particularly notable as he had already remarried his mainland Chinese mistress and had a son. Following his death, Tse, a former senior legal clerk for the Hong Kong government, was motivated to pursue her own dreams. She enrolled in a screenwriting course, wrote an autobiographical novel, and even sold her apartment, investing HK$5 million (around US$650,000) into making a film adaptation of the book when she was in her 60s.

The resulting melodrama, produced by Fruit Chan Gor and directed by Siu Koon-ho, is both awkward and self-indulgent, much like one might expect from a personal project of this nature. The film begins with a portrayal of Sabrina’s middle-class life, where she works as a mediator in a divorce case while her ex-husband is shown interacting with business partners in China. The family briefly reunites for a Lunar New Year celebration, but everything shifts when Sabrina uncovers the affair, an event already known to her children. The film struggles to maintain its rhythm as it dwells on Sabrina’s unyielding, sometimes cringe-worthy, devotion to a man who has clearly moved on.

One of the most memorable scenes in the film occurs in a hospital, where Sabrina, her ex-husband, and his second wife have a highly dramatic confrontation that leaves a lasting impression. The film’s focus on Sabrina’s emotional attachment to her ex-husband almost distracts from other filmmaking flaws, including the decision to shoot it entirely on iPhones and the transition from wide shots to close-ups. Despite these issues, the film was commercially released, showing raw and unrefined moments throughout.

Sabrina Tse has said that this film is a tribute to her true love, and, as it turns out, she may be the film’s primary audience.

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