Released 1993
Chinese
color
Directed by Kaige Chen
Starring Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Li Gong
(watched via Netflix streaming)
The Plot Basically Breaks Down Like This:
A bunch of little boys are signed over to this opera school where they are stretched and beaten and yelled at and trained to be exceptional actors. The main boy is very small and sensitive and treated like a girl and so grows up to think of himself as more feminine than masculine, which works out okay because he plays girl parts in the opera and has a stage brother who is big and manly and loud and plays all the guy parts. Years pass and they become famous and the girly one falls for the manly one, who in turn falls for a prostitute he eventually marries. Then war comes to China and things go downhill and a long progression of invasions and rebellions and revolutions happen, and the actors love each other and then hate each other and they do opera and they don't do opera and people die and costumes burn and stages are destroyed and eventually the film ends in a tragically beautiful or beautifully tragic kind of way, exactly as it probably should but is still kind of a downer.
My Thoughts Basically Break Down Like This:
This film is long and intense and hard to watch at times. It is deep and complex and full of history and mythology and artistry and easy to watch at times. It centers around a culture that I don't really understand or have a lot of experience with, so I don't know how accurately it was portrayed, but it certainly felt real. It felt large and sad and honest in a way that most films can't quite manage. The main character is not the most likable person in the world. He is quiet and abused, yet also spoiled and selfish. He has been molded into a certain kind of person by his teachers and friends and situation, and ends up such a perfect product of the system that he can't think outside of its confines after a while. He falls in love with the person closest to him because that is all he knows, and ends up heartbroken when that person not only doesn't love him back in the same way, but ultimately betrays him to save his own skin. So the ending, with its tragic and yet not so surprising turn, feels true to who the character is and how a real person in that situation might have acted. Making it almost hopeful as well as heartbreaking (and yes I cried and cried like a little girl). This is an amazing film, a film that will sit with me for a long time, but probably not something I would recommend to just anyone. It is quiet and dark and not exactly the most uplifting of movies, so for those movie goers looking for a good time I might recommend they watch something else.
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