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Comrades, Almost a Love Story
Movie

Comrades, Almost a Love Story

1996 • Unknown

Woke Score
2.4
out of 10

Plot

Jun arrives in Hong Kong from mainland China, hoping to be able to earn enough money to marry his girlfriend back home. He meets the streetwise Qiao and they become friends. As friendship turns into love, problems develop, and although they seem meant for each other they somehow keep missing out.

Overall Series Review

Comrades, Almost a Love Story is a decades-spanning romantic drama that uses the experience of migration to Hong Kong as the backdrop for an on-again, off-again affair between two mainland Chinese immigrants. The narrative is primarily concerned with the universal themes of loneliness, ambition, and the price of the 'Hong Kong dream,' which forces the two leads to prioritize economic success over their personal commitment to each other and their respective fiancés. The main character arcs explore the material compromises—the hustle, the infidelity, the association with a mob boss—required to succeed in a hyper-capitalist environment. The film's conflicts are entirely centered on individual ambition, economic class, and heterosexual love. There is no political lecturing on Western intersectional hierarchies, nor is there any presence of anti-theist or sexual identity politics.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The narrative's central conflict is a universal story about economic ambition and a complicated love affair, not an intersectional lecture. All major characters are Chinese immigrants (mainlanders versus Hong Kongers) whose struggles are defined by economic opportunity and social class, not by a vilification of 'whiteness' or forced insertion of diversity. Characters are judged based on their ambition and hustling spirit.

Oikophobia3/10

The film explores the way the fast-paced, capitalist environment of Hong Kong 'corrupts' the characters and separates them from their original roots and fiancée, highlighting a critique of hyper-modernity and rootlessness. However, it does not explicitly frame the ancestral or home culture (mainland China) as fundamentally corrupt, racist, or evil, which keeps the score low.

Feminism6/10

The female lead, Qiao, is a highly independent, business-minded hustler who is often more pragmatic and successful than the male lead, Jun, for large stretches of the story. She consistently prioritizes financial independence over a stable relationship, demonstrating a 'Girl Boss' mentality. While the male lead is initially naive, his ambition is not fully emasculated. Qiao's character is flawed by her compromises (dating a gangster), preventing a maximum score, but the dynamic elevates the female character through career and cunning.

LGBTQ+1/10

The story exclusively focuses on complicated heterosexual relationships, including the lead's affair, his marriage to his fiancée, and the female lead's relationship with a mob boss. There is no presence of alternative sexual identities, queer theory, or gender ideology, and the plot revolves around the traditional structure of pairing, albeit one complicated by infidelity and ambition.

Anti-Theism1/10

The film's core themes are secular, focusing heavily on economic ambition, migration, and the pursuit of money. No traditional religion or faith is shown to be a source of strength or a source of evil, as there is a complete absence of explicit religious or anti-theist messaging. Morality is a result of personal ambition and circumstance rather than any philosophical attack on objective truth.