NINE years ago, female Taiwanese director Sylvia Chang’s “Tempting Heart” starring the sweet Gigi Leung, the perfect Takeshi Kaneshiro and the charismatic Karen Mok touched many. Then there was Chang’s “20.30.40” (2004) starring herself and the always wonderful Rene Liu and Angelica Lee. The film enlightened many on how women in their 20s, 30s and 40s have different viewpoints about life.

So when the talented filmmaker decided to make a film about fatherhood, it would also be something enjoyable.

After Ma Jingle’s “Happy Birthday” (2007), the very watchable Liu teams up with the very buff and tanned Louis Koo to play a married couple with a daughter. Sounds like a happy family? The problem is, Koo is a triad leader with a violently shady past and he needs to shake off that history to “become a good father” (which is the direct Mandarin translation of the movie title).

The story is nothing to shout about, if you think about all the other family dramas out there about a family trying to get a grip of things. But Chang is a master storyteller here. Although you’d be predicting every minute of the plot correctly as the movie proceeds, the 115-minute picture is still very engaging to sit through.

The moment the movie begins, you get an interesting graphic montage of Koo’s character running away from trouble (hence the English title, get it?). Then we go into a flashback sequence where Koo and Liu fall in love at first sight, and you become impressed with the campy yet effective approach here. Next, we see how five different actresses (infant to young girl to teenager) play the couple’s daughter. And in a fitting finale, we get an expected twist which makes for a reflective moment on life.

The fine performances of Koo and Liu work well here too. Koo ages nicely throughout the movie and you see him mature from a coarse teenager to a thoughtful father figure. Liu portrays a quirky younger self in the movie’s first half before nicely settling into what she does best – the emotive woman everyone wants to empathize with. The two create some nice chemistry and make a great on screen couple. Supporting characters are played by other familiar Hong Kong faces like Lim Suet (“Mad Detective”), Max Mok (“Once Upon a Time in China”), Ti Lung (“Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon”) and Kent Cheng (“Flash Point”), adding a unique old school charm to the movie.

The impatient viewer may find the movie tiresome by the time it reaches its halfway mark, but for those who can afford the patience, you’ll be won over by the enigmatic performances of the leads, and hopefully along the way, you’d get some lessons on fatherhood.

The film is now screening in Hong Kong.