My Prince Edward

Starring Stephy Tang and Chu Pak Hong. In Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles. Screens at Vancity Theatre until October 21. Streaming online at VIFF Connect until November 16. 

What initially appears to be a light drama about relationships perppered with comedic touches eschews typical romcom routes and gives way to a deeper search for personal freedom and independence amid societal demands.

The perpetually glum and passive Cheung Lei-Fong (Stephy Tang), or Fong, works at a bridal shop while her video-game-playing man-child of a boyfriend Edward (Chu Pak Hong) runs a wedding photography business in the same mall in the Prince Edward area of Hong Kong, where the couple also live in a cramped apartment.

With Edward’s meddling mother (Nina Paw Hee-Ching) as a backseat driver in the relationship, Edward proposes to the reticent Fong. What makes Fong pause is she agreed to a sham marriage to a Mainlander, Yang Shuwei (Jin Kai-jie) a decade ago in order to leave her family. She needs to figure out how obtain a divorce—and it’s only a matter of time before Edward finds out about all of this.

When Shuwei appears, he seeks Fong’s help in obtaining a one-way residency permit in Hong Kong. Things become even more complicated when Shuwei’s girlfriend enters the picture. The question remains: with simmering tensions threatening to boil over, will Fong wither under the pressure or rise to the occasion?

First-time feature director Norris Yee-Lam Wong handles these incremental escalations of stakes in an effective progression that keeps the narrative humming along, sometimes in unpredictable ways. Despite the dour Fong having a limited emotional range, Tang remains compelling in her ability to convey Fong’s internal conflicts through nuance. It’s when Fong begins to develop more autonomy that things develop greater momentum. After all, not all of us can wait around for a dashing royal figure to whisk us away to happily ever after.