The movie Love in Space is what one would call a cinematic masterpiece. In only one hour and forty minutes, it manages to follow four different storylines and tie them all together in the end to create an immensely satisfying ending. The movie is set in modern day (as of 2011) China and is entirely in Mandarin, however the subtitles in no way lessen the hilarity or quirkiness of this film.

Love in Space follows the lives of three sisters along with their mother. Each individual sister has their own attribute that makes them unique and entertaining. Each sister is faced with a love interest that is the opposite of their expectations and must learn to look past their flaws.

The youngest of the three is Peony Huang, who portrays an aspiring yet egregious actress. By creating this character who was so bad at acting, it really gave the movie a twist from the usual “everything is wonderful” plotline. To improve her acting skills, she goes undercover as a waitress at a cafe, because what actress hasn’t worked at a cafe? At said cafe, she meets a penniless writer/watermelon salesman named Wenfeng. As fate would have it, the two fall hopelessly in love, the only issue being that Wenfeng doesn’t know Peony’s true identity.

The relationship between Peony Huang and Wenfeng is the perfect façade. It looks like the quintessential relationship to the naked eye, but take a closer look and you will see the flaws. That’s what makes it so intriguing. The movie flaunts their perfectness with heartwarming, romantic scenes like Wenfeng giving her watermelons everyday even though he has no money to spare. The excellence of the film is that it builds up heaps of love and emotion within their relationship, all in order to make the fall that much harder for the audience.

The middle child is Lily Huang, a girl insanely afraid of germs. The role of Lily is wonderfully portrayed by actress Kwai Lun-Mei. It’s crazy how she is able to take this character and add so much more humor to her lines and actions just by adding in weird facial expressions and body language. Lily struggles with anything dirty and makes sure to keep her life in a tidy state. Due to Lily Huang’s phobia, she has not been able to maintain a relationship for a long time. However, her life gets flipped upside down when she meets a nice man named Johnny that she can’t help but like. That of course is until she finds out that he’s a garbage collector.

The irony in the relationship between Lily and Johnny is brilliant. The fact that you have this one character who hates anything dirty and you pair them up with another character whose life is built around dirty things is just the perfect recipe for comedy. Their relationship shows how relationships can be effortlessly humorous. Whether it’s Johnny having to brush his teeth three times before they kiss, or Lily having to wear gloves when they hold hands, their relationship is adorably silly.

Lastly, the eldest sister is Rose Huang, an unlucky astronaut who just so happened to be sent into space with her ex boyfriend. While they are up in space, Michael is constantly trying to get back together with Rose and Rose is constantly trying and failing to stop herself from falling back in love with Michael.

Rose and Michael’s relationship is essential to the film because it connects the film to the real world, well besides the “in space” part. The mending of the broken relationship that is portrayed in this movie is a very common thing that happens in life. The genius of the movie is that it takes this common aspect of getting back together with an ex-partner and quite literally launches it into space. The hilarity of chasing one another in zero gravity and the drama of missions gone wrong all add together to create a truly enticing experience for the viewer.

Overall, the quirkiness and pure oddity of the movie is what sets it apart from all of the other movies within this genre. This film is truly one of a kind, which is why I can say with full confidence that if you watch this movie, you will fall in love with it just like I did.