I had the same problem with the hong kong version of R:FoM. My NTSC-US\Canada version saves and loads fine now. I originally was swapping to play splinter cell DA. The NTSC(J) Version of R:FoM caused the game to crash when loading a savedata. The NTSC-US\Canada version of R:FoM loaded splinter cell DA fine.
Maybe worth selling the HK version to get the US version, or buy the F1 game as there is a swap trick with that game too. If you do buy a US version of R:FoM your savedatas from your HK version will not work.
Gaz