A Lovely, Touching Movie

I rented this movie this week from Netflix. I love foreign movies and was so pleasantly surprised by this one. The movie was made in 1993 and the story, scenery and acting are superb!

It is in subtitles so you must pay close attention but the story will break your heart. It stars the lovely Gong Li as a prostitute that comes between two best friends who are actors in the Peking Opera. Rescued from a group of obscene, drunk customers in a brothel by one performer who claims he is her fiance so the men will leave her alone, you can almost feel what's coming next. Little did he know that she would quit the brothel and show up barefoot at his door fully expecting him to honor what he'd said in front of the men at the brothel.

Dutifully, he marries her against the objections of his "stage brother" and the problems begin. Without actually stating it, the other perfomer is homosexual and one gets the notion he has fallen in love with his "stage brother". The homosexual character, played by Leslie Cheung, who in real life was gay and tragically, committed suicide in 2004, plays the part with such beauty and sensitivity. Besides being a beautiful man to begin with, he plays his character so convincingly, the lines begin to blur between his stage character and his real life.

The ending is tragic and will stay with you afterwards. Please rent this movie. You won't be disappointed.