Yin ji kau

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.

Unhappy together. An exquisite, enduringly resonant elegy for both lost love and vanishing history, Rouge is made all the more surreal thanks to its transcendently melancholy mood that's as illusory as time itself. One that feels all the more resonant and devastating due to real life coming to echo the film, with this already sombre love story made all the more tragic by the untimely deaths of its two leads. It's a subtle exploration of the differences between its periods, achieved through simple juxtaposition, particularly in terms of contrasting societal attitudes toward love and marriage. Director Stanley Kwan renders the two time periods in radically different ways, the thirties in florid images and modern times in muted tones; the lurid dramas of history functioning as stimulants for neutered passions of what was modern society, a journey to a time seemingly glamorous, yet everything always has a spell that can never be broken. But it's the lead performers that simply dominate and overshadow the plot from beginning to end. Cheung brings an enormous sensitivity and vulnerability to his role. He is impulsive and romantic, but also weak-minded and cowardly. Mui is simply radiant as Fleur. She has such a careful and precise control over her presence and presentation throughout the film. Above all, she gives her character a tremendous dignity. Does love really last forever? Infused with both a sense of nostalgia and, ultimately, an interrogation of that nostalgia, by Rouge's end, the sadness over the loss of the past seems to fade away. Ending on a forward-looking basis: the past has brought pain and regret, and the future is free of it, inviting its audience, in the end, things are probably going to be better in the years to come than the ones that have passed.

This is a film which is enthralling and gripping from beginning to end. It centers around two lovers from the "wrong sides of the tracks." Leslie Cheung is in love with a high class whore played exquisetely by Anita Mui (as Fleur - or "Flower" in English). Since society was against them being together, Anita poisoned them both but only she died. Her ghost spends the rest of the film (involved with a touching and oftimes comedic sidestory about a reporter and his girlfriend) in search of him. It is beautifully shot throughout. It really reminds one of the "one who got away" so to speak. A definite recommendation.

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.

This is one of the best films I've seen. As far as ghost stories go, this is one of the scariest for me. It's not scary by way Stir of Echoes or Gothika, but it will give you chills like nothing before. Sure, angry ghosts are scary, but a heartbroken ghost is scarier. She could appear to your left right now and ask for your help. Isn't THAT scary?

If you love ghost stories, love stories, Hong Kong and Chinese music, this movie has all that. It was a pleasant surprise to find a film that told a familiar story so beautifully it becomes unique.

Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui were perfect for their roles. Watch out for the scene where Leslie wears Peking Opera makeup. Fans of "Farewell, My Concubine" will surely love the foreshadowing of Leslie's future internationally-acclaimed performance.