Director and scriptwriter Derek Yee (Viva Erotica) was recruited from Hong, where the film, a sweet little romance, is set.

Sam is an innocent from Singapore who works hard at his reporting job in Hongkong, looking for his first big scoop. He thinks it may be in the form of a feckless 19-year-old. Jane has had a traumatic childhood with a con-artist father and a gangster brother, which has fostered a lousy attitude towards everyone and everything except clubbing and video arcades.

Jane pops pills, wears shades at night and waltzes into movies and discos without paying. An ideal candidate for a magazine cover on the lost generation, and Sam is set on the story.

As the boy with the comfortable background tries to understand the street-smart girl, he runs the gamut of emotions from pity to annoyance to a grudging admiration. For her part, while Jane sees Sam as a prize chump, she also learns to appreciate his kindness, which prompts him to offer her the use of his television set after she's stolen it, and to clean up her disgusting flat for her.

The mismatched couple discover that they are in love, but the question is whether their relationship is strong enough to stand the inevitable strains that their different backgrounds are bound to throw up.

Certainly a very simple story, and fans of Yee might complain that The Truth About Jane And Sam lacks the layered complexity of the director's previous work, like That's Life My Darling.

Just taken on its own, however, the film is quite engaging, and it looks even better if you consider it not in the light of Yee's previous work, but in terms of Raintree's bland earlier effort, Liang Po Po.

Taiwanese singer Peter Ho and TCS star Fann Wong, both making their big screen debuts, are appealing as Sam and Jane. Ho manages to convey his character's naivete without making the audience lose patience, while Wong does a good job of revealing Jane's soft, vulnerable side beneath her tough exterior.

Any shortcomings in their performances are skilfully smoothed over by clever editing and pacing, and the slight script is effective, with sure characterisation and a generous sprinkling of funny observations to keep the audience watching.

Note the problems Jane's gangster brother (Qian Jia Le) has calculating 600 per cent interest on a debt, and Jane's eccentric but understandable choice of stealing a television and groceries from Sam's unguarded apartment. Or Sam's agony after falling asleep in a tight embrace - half your body can get numb.

The truth is, Jane's and Sam's may not be an earthshaking relationship, but it is nevertheless an attractive pairing.