Despite the title, there is no nudity in the Chinese rom-com “Love in the Buff,’’ although there is a lot of risqué language.
This is a follow-up to “Love in a Puff,’’ a hit in China, in which two Hong Kong chain-smokers, Jimmy (Shawn Yue) and the older Cherie (Miriam Yeung), begin a love affair that eventually goes up in smoke. The sequel picks up nine months later, when both have moved to Beijing and cut back on their tobacco addictions.
Jimmy and Cherie each find new lovers in Beijing, but they eventually reconnect, and discover that one can’t do without the other. Hong Kong director Pang Ho-Cheung follows the two as they make up, then break up, then make up again.
Although predictable, the film is well acted and directed, and should be a hit in Asia. (It opened the Hong Kong Film Festival this month.) But it is unlikely to resonate with Western audiences, who have more than enough sentimental English-language romantic comedies to keep themselves occupied.