Pekin Opera Blues

I would be lying if I said every bit of the storytelling was easy to follow in the first half - or that isn't quite right, more than the pacing is so break-neck you feel like Tsui Hark is a little worried the audience might lose what's happening if he isn't throwing some bit of broad comic or dramatic business - but what he is truly gifted at here, which is staging equally intense comedy and acting and just giving all the room for his totally charismatic and electric and even kind of adorable cast of women and (some) men playing out roles upon roles, makes up the difference for a pretty spectacular thrill ride.

Brigitte Lin is the more grounded dramaric foundation here (quite the departure for me from the Wong Kar Wai I've seen her in previously), but the unabashed joy is seeing Yeh and Chung play off of Lin as an unlikely trio (come to think of it put this on a double with the Heroic Trio and you got... six great performances!) This is a movie that has a terrific backdrop of the Chinese theater of the turn of the 20th century and that is captivating enough, but what keeps one hooked in is the subterfuge and everything the ladies have to do to get this or that item (key, Secret President Papers above all), and that when the action and fights and guns kick in... whoa, baby.

As a story of espionage maybe Hark knows he has to rely on his cast and stunt team to kick it into over-drive, but he understands that this movie is about the kind of Big Dance that someone has to do on a stage, in playing a man or what it even means for a woman to play a woman (where is the spark in that... until it is amazing) that will keep us glued and laughing at how Big it gets.

There is tonal whiplash sometimes, to be sure - we go from a rather harrowing and upsetting torture sequence to a flamboyant seduction to a "this character is totally alive even though they are totally dead" gag - and yet I was into those parts the most, when Hark just gives in to how behind the giant mustaches and wigs these men are total.... dopes and have little chance against our beleaguered heroes.

In short, it takes a few minutes to fully lock in, not to mention sort of let go how we shouldn't care about the possible romantic tension between spies, and once we do we can wholly soak up the balls to the wall action and comedy and (at points) blood-soaked melodrama. This is one of those pulpy delights that shows a director in love with the ways he can throw bodies through the air in visceral displays of bravado and how funny it is seeing someone rearrange a blanket to disguise unwanted guests.

An incredible cast lead by the amazing Birgitte Lin star in this expertly crafted film from auteur Tsui Hark. The comedy is funny, the music is great, the acting is good and the action scenes are well done. Add to this an interesting plot and a fast pace and you get an amazing film that expertly jumps between genres. Entertaining from frame one, this is one of my all-time favorites.

10 out of 10

I do have to admit, I found this film quite hard to follow. It moves very fast and also feels like it changes tonally on a scene by scene basis. Eventually, I just had to accept that it was an espionage movie with like five main characters (three women and two guys, though the female characters are ultimately given the spotlight most of the time) doing various spy things, at first for their own reasons, and then more or less for similar reasons? Maybe? I got what they were doing, but the why was a little fuzzier.

Thankfully, it was still a fun time, even if it was also a bit overwhelming and sometimes confusing. It balances all its different genres and tonal shifts well, and that's something that can be appreciated even without following the story beat for beat.

It's also got some very good action scenes, which I was hoping for, given the director, Tsui Hark, is known for mastering the action genre (I've seen his Once Upon a Time in China movies, which were really good from memory).

And overall, I feel pretty confident in saying Peking Opera Blues was good. If it got a remaster with slightly better subtitles one day, I'd happily rewatch it, because I also think some of my confusion came from the English subtitles not being the best.

This is an intense action comedy from director Hark Tsui, a story set in post-Chinese Revolution of 1911 where triad members fought each other for power while Sun Yat-Sen's underground movement tried to establish a democratic republic. Mixed into the plot are three young women, played brilliantly by Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh and Cherie Chung. Lin plays Tsao Wan, who is the daughter of a general. Yeh plays opera actress Pat Neil and Chung plays small time thief Sheung Hung. All three get entwined within the feuding wars of two triad groups that drags them back and forth between the Royal Palace and the Peking Opera.

This film blends in action and political satire, to give you an entertaining tale of drama of sacrifice. There are some pretty intense moments as well, from scenes of gun battles to a scene of torture, courtesy of Mark Cheng and Brigitte Lin. All this put added suspense to the film that gives an intriguing aura of tough times during post-revolution China and the yearning of freedom and better lives among its Chinese subjects. Amidst all the carnage and drama is comic relief, most notably provided by Cherie Chung.

Overall, it's a rushed film with a lot of chaos thrown in the mix. But, it's pretty entertaining.

Grade B-

Opinion seems pretty evenly divided on PEKING OPERA BLUES. One camp regards it as possibly the best film to come out of Hong Kong in the last twenty years, while the other camp thinks it's "stoopid".

Oddly, I come down somewhere between the two.

The first thing to understand is that POB is NOT a kung fu film. Yes, it has fighting in it. It has gunplay and it even has torture. But it is not a kung fu film. Mostly, it's a comedy adventure and those of us familiar with Hong Kong cinema will be well-aware that Hong Kong humour is, at best, an acquired taste, especially for us gwai-loh.

The next thing to understand is that its importance lies in the way it completely subverts the traditional gender roles in Chinese society. Some of this lies on the surface - in the way that Cherie Chung's character tries to get some stage acting in but is chastised by her father for it (at this time in China, all female roles on stage were played by men). Some of this lies in the subtext - in the way that Brigitte Lin's character is completely in charge of both her female and her male companions. And some of it lies in between - in the way that Lin dresses as a man (a long and honorable tradition in Chinese storytelling), but a bit odd here as she's not actually *disguised* as a man.

Add to this that all three female leads are headstrong women who know what they want (Brigitte Lin is just stronger, even, than the other two) and that the men are followers (Mark Cheng follows orders, then Brigitte, and Kwok Keung Cheung just follows Mark) and you can begin to see the impact this must have had when it came out in 1986 - years before we had Xena Warrior Princess or Veronica Mars.

Overall, I think POB is a good movie, though probably not a great one. When I watch it (I have the dodgy DeltaMac DVD release with the eccentric subtitling - "There's a girl. Knock her up!") I just can't help feeling that this should have been much better than it was.

Maybe if Tsui Hark were to do a remake today, POB would be the movie it always deserved to be ...