AThames
This was an interesting movie. This is a tale of tragic romance, where the male character is an emotional wreck (due to him being a slave for his sister and her husband, who also forces him to have a little experience with incest), and the female character is living her day in an opium cloud. The acting from the main actors is top notch, namely Leslie Cheung and Li Gong, who always seem to deliver in every movie I have seen them in (Li Gong struggles a bit in her English speaking roles, and it does take something away from her performance in those movies, I must admit). Li Gong usually plays an intelligent character, but here she is an opium addict, so it is definitely different seeing her looking all confused and dumbfounded all the time. The cinematography was spectacular, as it usually is when Christopher Doyle is in charge. The lighting and camera angles reminded me a little of David Lynch, and I believe it was done this way in order for you to see the world like you had smoked opium, just like the characters. You should see the movie for the acting, cinematography and camera work alone.The main critique of the movie seems to be that it is very hard to follow the plot and figure out who is who. I agree with this. It gets established 40 min or so into the movie, but you could be tempted to turn off the movie before that because it is so confusing. But once it gets established who is who, and what they want, the plot becomes a lot better, and I became very involved in the movie.
zzmale
Not only the society in China decades ago, but also the current Chinese society. Again, like the movie Farewell My Concubine also directed by Mr. Kaige Chen, this film is also a work of contemporary criticism told in the form of a story happened decades ago.Unlike the story of Farewell My Concubine (Ba Wang Bie Ji), what reflected in this film is far too close to home: what happened more than half a century ago is happening again in China and the director was more direct in criticizing the decadence in this film.
Curious-from south
I rented this movie because it sounded sexy and hot. It was ..mmmm... well made period drama WITH NO SKIN!!! Now the depiction of love and longing and the moral struggle was nicely (albeit slowly) depicted, lack of sex on screen made it very...lame.
Buggy-2
Such a good movie with great plot and impressive visuality. Each shot is like a photograph and very beautiful, too. Story of Chinese traditions and a fervid love triangle. This is a movie of strong characters against tradition and each other and love. Gong Li and Leslie Cheung are among my favorite actors and actresses and they become a magical couple in the same movie. A must see...
AD
