Love the Hard Way is a 2001 crime drama film directed by . The story revolves around a petty thief who brings an innocent young woman into his world of crime while she teaches him the lessons of enjoying life and being loved.
The film was written by and is based on the novel Yi Ban Shi Huo Yan, Yi Ban Shi Hai Shui by Chinese writer Wang Shuo, although Sehr transported the film's story to New York City.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Adrien Brody completists will appreciate Love the Hard Way, if only as an example of the kind of self-conscious, brat-noir projects their man probably won't be doing anymore."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "[A]s character studies of Jack and Claire, it is daring and inventive, and worthy of comparison with the films of a French master of criminal psychology like Jean-Pierre Melville."