At The Movies: Ke Huy Quan’s action lead debut in Love Hurts packs a punch

Love Hurts (NC16)

83 minutes, opens on Feb 6
★★★☆☆

The story: Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) is a mild-mannered Milwaukee realtor with a flourishing business, but he hides a violent past. His life is overturned when notes appear from former accomplice and lover Rose (Ariana DeBose), hinting at unfinished business. His brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu), head of a crime syndicate, hopes to find Marvin to deliver payback for a betrayal. Over the Valentine’s Day period, Marvin must fend off Knuckles’ thugs and find closure with Rose, while maintaining his reputation as a pillar of the business community. 

Production studio 87North ambitiously weaves together three elements: 1980s Hong Kong action, romantic comedy and Quan’s leading-man debut. 

It has been perfecting this formula, first convincing audiences that American comedian and actor Bob Odenkirk could be a killing machine in Nobody (2021), then proving its mastery of East-West action fusion with the John Wick franchise (2014 to present).

Love Hurts hopes to do for Valentine’s Day what the studio’s brutal Violent Night (2022) did for Christmas. It would have worked as a date movie, but for the same flaw that plagued 87North’s A-list vehicle The Fall Guy (2024) starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt: the lack of a convincing romantic pairing. 

Oscar winners Quan (for 2022’s Everything Everywhere All At Once) and DeBose (for 2021’s West Side Story) deserve a better romantic narrative than the one this film delivers, and its brief 83-minute running time hints at bits left on the cutting-room floor.

One fears it might have been material that made the pairing feel solid and plausible, more than just a throwaway plot device driving the action forwards. 

However, what is left makes for a pulse-quickening thrill ride. With 87North films, that much is always guaranteed. 

First-time director Jonathan “Jojo” Eusebio, a veteran stunt coordinator, brings his deep understanding of Hong Kong action to Love Hurts.

His camerawork places viewers in the middle of each fight, while his choreography perfectly balances realism with style. The action sequences pay constant homage to Hong Kong cinema – fighters wielding either ornate signature weapons or improvising with whatever is at hand, including, memorably, a bubble tea straw.

Despite the film’s flaws, Quan proves he is more than capable as an action lead, bringing both physical prowess and emotional depth to Marvin, whose open houses become war zones.

Hot take: In this entertaining if undercooked thriller, John Wick meets Selling Sunset as Quan seals the deal.