While the Lunar New Year romantic comedy Hot Summer Days doesn't break the mold for movies of its' type or even attempt to do so, it is at least notable for two things. First, it is the first Chinese-language production from the American juggernaut Twentieth Century Fox studio. And, perhaps more importantly for long-time Hong Kong film fans, it marks the venerable Maggie Cheung's first on-screen appearance since 2004's Clean.

Unfortunately, the Magster's screen time is limited, with her fulfilling one of the stunt-casting cameo roles Lunar New Year films seem to delight in throwing towards the audience. But she does shine in her short appearance, which makes her absence from Hong Kong movies all that much more painful for aficionados of her work.

At any rate, Hot Summer Days takes the usual Lunar New Year romcom path of having an star-packed ensemble cast playing out several inter-connected stories about life and love. The movie does get a bit too cutsey at times, most notably through the use of a pair of animated fish who serve as a Greek chorus of sorts for one of the stories. It also does tread into the realm of melodrama, by having not only one, but two, characters suffering from terminal diseases.

But, as far as these sorts of movies go, Hot Summer Days isn't too bad, especially if you generally enjoy the actors featured in the cast. This isn't the sort of movie that you're going to sit down to watch to get huge belly laughs, heart-pumping excitement, or deep philosophical meditations. The film is meant to appeal to a wide audience by providing light fluffy entertainment featuring good-looking people, and it succeeds in delivering that.

RATING: 6