Customer Reviews

Rouge [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a ghost story but it's not a horror film. It's a timeless tale of a love that tries to survive beyond the bounds of death. Anita Mui has created a character, the tragic courtesan Fleur, that is hers and hers alone. The music, the mood, the acting, the quiet moments of sadness and despair: all of this is "Rouge." If you can handle a film with subtitles, you should not miss "Rouge" by any means. You will remember this film for a long, long time and you will watch it more than once.

Rouge is the story of a 23 year old Chinese Prostitute named Fleur who falls in love with a client, the heir of a rich merchant. When her lover's father refuses to let them marry they run away together, but tragedy soon follows, and faced with the sadness of separation, the two decide to commit suicide together.

Fleur becomes a ghost, doomed to search for her lost lover who has not followed up in hell. Enlisting the aid of a newspaper editor and his girlfriend, she publishes an ad in the paper directing him to meet her one last time. The sound track of this movie was first rate, and the acting was superb.

I really enjoyed Fleur, even if I thought her lover was rather wimpy. The movie is well worth the watch, a must for Hong Kong Ghost film fans!

In "Rouge," a ghost from fifty years in the past returns to Hong Kong, searching for her lost love. No, this isn't a goofy romantic-comedy, even if the premise sounds awfully familiar. Instead, it's a highly-effective melodrama from director Stanley Kwan, as well as a star vehicle for Anita Mui, the late Cantonese pop singer. As Fleur, a beautiful courtesan who dies tragically with her lover, Mui gets to sing, dress up in period costumes, and otherwise command the screen.

The story: Fleur's spirit somehow fails to be reunited in the afterlife with that of Chen (Leslie Cheung, from "The Chinese Feast" and "Happy Together"), her earthly paramour. Assuming he has been reincarnated, she patiently waits in the underworld until August 11th, 1987. Why that date? According to a diviner, whom she consulted while still alive, that is the soonest they can meet again on Earth. Fleur wants to see Chen one more time before returning to the land of the dead, where she will be reborn herself.

Of course, Hong Kong has changed a lot by the time she returns. Fleur requires a guide, and a meek ad man named Yuen (Alex Man) takes pity on her. At first, he doesn't know that she's a ghost; he dismisses her as a harmless eccentric, only to discover her true nature during the bus ride home. After that tense, appropriately creepy revelation, he still takes her back to his apartment, which he shares with his reporter girlfriend, Chor (Emily Chu).

The writers of "Rouge," Tai An-Ping Chiu and Bik-Wa Lei, cut back-and-forth between Fleur and Chen, and Yuen and Chor, telling parallel stories. With the former couple, we witness the tale of their sad fate, which may not be as clear-cut as Fleur made it sound. Meanwhile, the other couple tries to figure out what really happened to Chen, why his spirit, after he died, was never able to find Fleur's. Relying mainly on Chor's journalistic skills, they locate several clues in places Fleur and Chen used to frequent. Ultimately, these lead to a surprising plot twist or two, which casts everything we were told in a different light. Friend turns against friend, lover against lover, and the climactic Peking opera movie set seems oddly appropriate, as the present comes face-to-face with the past.

But solving a fifty-year old metaphysical mystery, compelling as it ends up being, isn't the sole aim of the filmmakers. They use the two time periods, and two couples, to juxtapose love in the 30's with the 80's, to show how some aspects are different, while others stay the same.

At one point, the old-fashioned Fleur asks Yuen why he hasn't married his girlfriend. He replies that he doesn't feel any pressure. After all, they live a staid, comfortable life already. They are even past the point of buying each other love tokens. In an earlier scene, when Yuen "surprises" Chor with a gift, it turns out to be sneakers, eminently practical, but not exactly romantic.

By contrast, from the moment Fleur and Chen lock eyes, everything about their love affair vibrates with urgency. He publicly declares his affection for her after just one encounter, and showers her with gifts large and small (such as the ornamental make-up box from which the movie's title derives). After Chen's wealthy family disowns him for refusing to call off the relationship, they continue their desperate clinging. Cinematographer Bill Wong accentuates their passion by infusing the 30's time period with lots of reds and golds. Meanwhile, he adopts conservative colors for the 80's, thus creating two very distinct moods.

But this does not mean relationships in previous times were better, even if the people involved may have shown more passion. Clearly, Fleur is more desperate about her man than Chor about her own. But a woman's role in 1980's Hong Kong has also changed dramatically from the 30's. When Fleur was a child, her parents abandoned her; she became a professional courtesan at the tender age of 14. She knows she must marry in order to become a "respectable" woman. If she does not accomplish this while at the height of her beauty and popularity, she will be stuck at the brothel forever. A modern career woman like Chor never has to worry about suffering this kind of fate.

Perhaps, because love can be viewed more as a luxury than a necessity, Chor's relationship with Yuen isn't nearly as urgent. Even so, both couples still have aspects in common, such as the need for physical intimacy. Indeed, during one scene, Fleur peeks in on Yuen and Chor while they make love. As she watches, the footage of one couple intermingles with images of the other. They become a montage of affection.

On the one hand, this sequence functions as psychological filmmaking, merging point-of-view shots with memory. But at the same time, it argues that love in the 80's only seems staid and comfortable, that underneath, the passion that comes from feeling close to someone remains alive and kicking.

Rouge tells the story of Fleur (Anita Mui), a beautiful courtesan in 1930's Hong Kong and her lover (played by Leslie Cheung) whose parents forbid him from marrying Fleur. The two attempt suicide, but only Fleur dies, leaving her ghost to search for her lover for more than fifty years. Fleur's ghost puts an ad in the newspaper in the 1980's and enlists the help of a reporter and his girlfriend.

The atmosphere in "Rouge" is outstanding and Kwan skillfully employs the right camera shots to supply specific moments in the film with a certain element of spookiness. The scene with Fleur's ghost on the tram with the reporter is unforgettably creepy.

Anita Mui is splendidly enchanting throughout the whole film. With or without makeup, every shot of her is exquisite. Leslie Cheung also gives a fine performance. Fans of these two late (both died in 2003) and extraordinary actors should definitely watch the two of them together in this film.

...is that, in Hong Kong films, pop stars can act. With this statement, I'm not only thinking about Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in this film, but also Faye Wong in Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express. Rouge is not the typical Hong Kong movie. Although Jackie Chan is listed in the credits as its executive producer, Rouge does not include spectacular kung-fu fight sequences. The description of the movie printed on the back of my copy of Rouge says it "belongs to a more select category, the Cantonese art film." I can really see this in the opening sequence, which I think is the best part of the whole film. Does anyone know the song that Anita Mui sings in the beginning? I do not speak Cantonese so I can't understand it, but even without the words it is still very beautiful. Director Stanley Kwan artfully balances the tragic main plot (concerning Fleur and Twelfth Master) and the less intriguing subplot (the relationship between Yuan and his girlfriend) to contrast the grandeur of 1930s Hong Kong with the banality of 1980s Hong Kong. The only other Stanley Kwan film I have seen is his more recent Lan Yu, and I can definitely say that Rouge is better.

I really loved this film. It was played at a Hong Kong Film Festival held at the college I attend and it was my favorite film at the festival. It has a touch of romance, a bit of sadness, drama, and at the end a cause to cheer. If you like supernatural things or romances than I highly recommend this film.

The prostitute Ruhua fell in love with Chen Zhenbang from a rich family, but the Chen's family opposed their marriage. Chen decided to leave his family and stayed with Ruhua. But the cruelty of life without the ability and endurance to make a living soon follows. Half a year later, they decided to commit suicide together and promised to stay together in another world. After her death, Ruhua could not find Chen, but she refused to drink the Mengpo soup to forget the past so that she could reincarnate. After 53 years of waiting, she went back plaintively to look for him. But in the end, she found Cheng Zhengbang was still alive and had become a mumbling lowlife old man. Disappointed with his cowardice, she returned him the rough box that she wore for 53 years and left calmly.

The screenplay writer Lillian Lee (also the author of the original novel) often writes in a rather less elegant tone. Never a perfect love story with a faithful couple, but rather one-sided with a determined prostitute, radical about love and a dandy from a rich family with a coward deep inside his heart. But with Lee's extremely versed cultural knowledge and somewhat rebellious style (but not for the sake of just being rebellious), the storytelling always turns out to be poignantly enthralling. Stanley Kwan weaved it so well in every detail without destroying the fluency of the movie or the fluency of my feeling throughout the movie. Artistical without affectation; masterful without pretentiousness, this one easily falls into my favorite type.

This time it's Jackie Chan behind the camera instead of in front. The film pairs two of the finest stars of Asia in a tragic story of star crossed lovers. It is beautifully shot and wonderfully acted by Anita Mui and the equally great, Leslie Cheung. Not to be missed!

Fifty years after taking her own life, the spirit of a courtesan searches for her lover with whom she made a suicide pact. Coming on like some Arthouse version of Ghost, this is an exotic, deeply lyrical tale of interrupted love and the longing for a lost past. Stunningly sumptious visuals make this a welcome addition to anyone's collection. File under Bitter-Sweet (like the taste of almonds).

After reading the initial reviews on the site, I was expecting much more from this film. It simply does not stack up to the emotional punch and narrative vision of films like "Raise the Red Lantern" "Temptress Moon" "Farewell My Concubine" or "Shanghai Triad." The atmosphere in the other films I have listed is so thick you can smell the opera paint and incence, but Rogue was less engrossing, less compelling, less moving. The ghost from the past was out of place in modern-day Hong Kong. The directing was also a little weak in comparison with the top rate work on the films listed above.

Leslie Cheung is fine, as in his later works, above, but I was not overly impressed with the female lead. She certainly does not hold a candle to Gong Li, who is the goddess of current Chinese cinema!

All in all, fine for a rental, but not a repeat viewer . . .