While the triad and wuxia genres got most of the attention in the West, Hong Kong’s most popular crowd-pleasers of the 1990s were romantic melodramas, among which Comrades: Almost a Love Story stands apart. Winner of Best Picture, Director, and Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the film tracks the friendship and thwarted love affair between two immigrant Chinese Mainlanders in Hong Kong (and, later, New York City), played by superstars Leon Lai and Maggie Cheung. The film’s original title was based on a song by singer Teresa Teng, an icon among both mainland Chinese and the Chinese diaspora.