Ok, we have Twelve Nights in town, a Hong Kong love story starring Cecilia Cheung (Fly Me To Polaris, The Legend Of Speed, Tokyo Raiders) and singer Eason Chan (City Of Glass), with cameo appearances by teen idols Nicholas Tse (Gen-X Cops) and Stephen Fung (Bishonen). Twelve Nights is written and directed by Aubrey Lam in her first directorial debut and produced by Peter Chan, with Raymond Chow as executive producer.

The plot is about basically about Jeannie (Cecilia Cheung) and the ups and downs of her love life. On a night out with her friends, she meets Alan (Eason Chan), whereby she proceeds to dump her boyfriend, Johnny for him and he returns the favor two weeks later by dumping his girlfriend, Clara for her.

Now, sounds like a very simple premise for a story, right? Well, it is, however, the story is segmented into the twelve most important nights of Jeannie and Alan's relationship (hence, the title of the movie), including the night they first met, the night they broke up and the other nights subsequently which makes for a quite refreshing way of telling a story. What is even more interesting is the way the movie explores the ambiguities and vagaries of love.

Take for example, a scene in the movie where Alan forces Jeannie to go through several changes of evening outfits before he is finally satisfied with the image she exudes. The question raised by Jeannie here is, "Is love for you (Alan) just a matter of how I look? What if I was dressed differently, would you still love me?" A relevant question, I feel, and one that is not easy to answer honestly by just anybody.

Now, don't get me wrong, okay, this is not one of those artistic or philosophical films. It's just an interesting one as we watch the combined factors of Cecilia's immaturity, fickleness and insecurities and Alan's insensitivity and stubbornness slowly undermining their relationship. The movie also offers several interesting philosophies about love like, "Love is like a disease, you're feel better once it's over." And somehow, the way the plot slowly pulls you into Alan and Cecilia's love lives makes Twelve Nights more than just your average maximum saccharine sweet love story.

Hmmm, considering that this is her first directorial debut of a feature film, director Aubrey Lam has done quite well here. The story moves along smoothly, the dialog is well-scripted and the skillful weaving of several light moments into the movie makes this at the very least an interesting watch. Cecilia Cheung has definitely improved on her skills as an actress with her commendable portrayal of an insecure and fickle-minded Jeannie. Whereas Eason Chan looks a bit stiff in his role but still manages to give a passable performance of the harassed boyfriend. Well, Twelve Nights is certainly not a bad watch and if you're in a relationship, just getting out of one or about to get into one, then by all means, go catch it!