Yin ji kau

One of those slow, lugubrious films that nevertheless holds your interest if you are intrigued by the stars. And in this case the stars are two all-time greats of Hong Kong cinema, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui. Cheung's complex performance as Mui's lover, simultaneously devoted and ambivalent, is nuanced by the knowledge of his real-life homosexuality. Throughout the film, the camera returns to focus on Mui's face; she holds one's interest through her ability to convey her inner thoughts through an amazing range of facial expressions.

This complicated love story is now made more poignant by the real life fact that both actors died young, in 2003 - Cheung by suicide and Mui by cancer. Recommended for romantics, film buffs, and devotees of Cheung and Mui.

Sometimes films just take your breath away. This is one of them, for me. I first saw it when it aired on Channel 4 in the UK in the early 90's and then recently managed to pick up a copy on video. After all these years, it's lost none of the impact it had on me when I first saw it.

"Rouge" tells the story of two doomed lovers in the early 1930's. He is a high class gentleman, Twelfth Master Chan Chen-Pang, the heir to three successful medicine stores. She is Fleur, a famous courtesan. His parents disapprove of both his choice of lover and also his passion for the Cantonese opera. They are horrified when he decides to give up the shopkeeping business in favour of becoming an actor and immediately order him to return to the family. So he and Fleur take their own lives, vowing to meet up in the afterlife and be together forever. Fifty years later, her ghost returns to the world of the living, still searching for her beloved Twelfth Master.

On the surface, it's a traditional Chinese romantic ghost story but there's far more lurking underneath. Essentially "Rouge" is a lament on a bygone age of pre-Westernised China, a yearning for a return to the old values, traditions and passions that are now lost beneath the neon lights and soulless rush of modern-day Hong Kong. It's also a lonesome mediation on the nature of trust and the complexity of human relationships with a tragic punchline and a strong sense of alienation running throughout.

Deeply melancholy, loaded with ravishingly beautiful imagery and haunting performances from the two gifted leads (Anita Mui and the ever-mesmerising Lesley Cheung), "Rouge" is an unforgettable, understated and utterly unique piece of filmmaking. A very strange, subtle blend of genres that floats around the mind long after the end credits have finished rolling. 9 out of 10.

A beautiful film - like a Chinese version of a European art film. A ghost who has been wandering around for fifty years looking for her lover goes into a newspaper office to write a missing persons ad. This film deserves more attention for its haunting story, wonderful acting and beautiful cinematography.

"...like a dreamy moon, or a flower just out of reach..."

Stanley Kwan serves up a feast for the eyes in Rouge, with its gorgeous colors, lights, and the radiant Anita Mui. The connection between her and Leslie Cheung is electric from the very beginning when she sings to him. She plays a woman in 1930's Hong Kong who had been sold into prostitution as a teenager, and he's a customer of hers from a well-to-do-family. When they start getting serious, however, his mother politely objects.

I won't spoil it, but how the film transitions unexpectedly to the present, with a ghostly haunting, and then to melancholy is both dreamy and touching. Anita Mui is dazzling throughout, and the cute newspaper couple, played by Emily Chu and Alex Man, provide a nice modern relationship parallel. Aside from the feelings of romance and heartache the film stirs up, there are elements of sentimentality from things simply changing with time, like the city itself. The ending goes for the emotional jugular too, and succeeds.

He promised to go with her, but she found no him. Fifty years had passed. She still kept searching. Perhaps no way did her world go complete without him. But did he keep his promise ??? That's the story.

Hongkong film industry reached the peak in late 80s, and this movie is one of the best produced that time. In it we can find very good actors and director, very beautiful cinematography, and a thoughtful story of course.

Silent and slow but not boring. A must see.