Even though Your Place or Mine! has the semi-notorious Wong Jing's name attached to it and has a silly and unnecessary exclamation point in the title, it turns out to be a comedy that is surprisingly devoid of the boorish toilet humor one usually associates with Wong's over-the-top productions. Rather, this is a well-crafted romantic comedy that is actually funny -- and even a bit touching.

The more mature style is undoubtedly due to Wong serving only as a producer, with James Yuen serving as both director and screenwriter for this picture. Yuen is a film-maker who is best known for his work with the United Filmmakers Organization (UFO) studio, which produced a series of highly-regarded comedy/dramas in the early 1990's that focused on the lives of modern day young professionals (aka "Chuppies" or Chinese Yuppies). By the end of the decade, the studio was bought out by Golden Harvest and most of the staff, including Yuen, went on to other production houses.

The results here are something closer than what you would see from Yuen's work with UFO, such as 1993's Tom, Dick and Hairy, than the usual output from Wong Jing's BoB and Partners Co. Not that there's anything wrong with smutty jokes, but it is nice to see a Hong Kong film that doesn't use stereotypes as storytelling crutches or mistake the volume of the actors' voices for the level of supposed hilarity of the jokes they're telling.

The story, which centers on two ad executives (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Alex Fong) as they bumble their way from being players to finding true love, is devoid of any major deviations from the usual romcom formula, and occasionally falls prey to cheeseball devices, such as montages accompanied by sappy Cantopop ballads, which always brings a disillusioned groan to this beleaguered reviewer.

But Your Place or Mine! never stays down for too long. Most importantly, the leads are likeable, and their paramours (Vivian Hsu, Suki Kwan, and Ada Choi) are given more weight than the usual vapid "jade vase" role assigned to these sorts of characters, making the viewing experience much more enjoyable to sit through than the ripe tripe sometimes oozed out towards the viewer by film-makers' over-dependence on tired genre conventions and techniques.

RATING: 6.5