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| A wonderful melodrama, with excellent performances, set during the Japanese takeover of Shanghai during World War II and centered around a lounge singer portrayed by Anita Mui. Well done but there could have been more development of the characters and setting. For example, the need for the Chinese resistance (a critical story element) would be better understood by western audiences and younger viewers if the brutality of the Japanese occupation was explained a little further. Also, the main and supporting characters could have used more fleshed out introductions and it sometimes felt as if I had missed the opening reel of the film. It was made and performed well enough to be able to accept "what" everyone was doing, but I cared enough about the people to want to know more about "why". On the other hand, too much explanation (about the war in particular) would have distracted from the main focus of the story which was the personal drama of the characters. I highly recommend it. |
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| | | | | With the Japanese Occupation of World War II as a backdrop, Leung Ka-Fai is constantly torn between his duty to China, and his love for singer Anita Mui. While beautifully filmed, this film ultimately tries to cover too much material, and the audience is never really involved. Actually, most of the time, the audience is completely lost. One redeeming feature is the fine performance by the Japanese actor who plays Anita Mui's loyal, kind-hearted admirer. | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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| Mui-Yi (who sings four songs) and the patriotic Sum were lovers in their student days. But just as their love blossomed, the onset of WWII took Sum away. Their paths cross again, years later, when the war is at its height. Mui-Yi is now a sultry nightclub songstress, and witnesses Sum fight with and shoot dead a Japanese national. Mui-Yi hides the wounded Sum with the help of her aunt. The ruthless secret police chief Tieh suspects this, and has Mui-Yi's father arrested and takes over his nightclub. The aunt despises Tieh but, with her old (and impotent) husband out of the way, becomes drawn to the violent Tieh. Meanwhile, the Japanese Consul does all he can to protect Mui-Yi while failing to conceal his obvious passion for her. He also helps the two lovers stay in contact, and Mui-Yi falls pregnant to Sum, who inevitably must go away again, but he promises that, when the war is over, he'll find her again. There's much gritting of teeth and stoicism and patriotic self- sacrifice all round. To protect Mui-Yi, Sum even shoots the Consul in the knee, to give him a reason for invalid discharge, to get him and Mui-Yi out of the war zone. Ouch. And, as in all sweeping romances where the lovers are kept apart, when they are together they're always at crossed purposes... |
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| | | | | Plush, glorified soap opera, a prestige production cerebrating Golden Harvest's "100 Films" anniversary. Directed by "auteur" Tony Au Ting-Ping (who also made the underrated Tony Leung/Rosamund Kwan thriller TOUCH OF EVIL), who imbues the frequently melodramatic proceedings with an epic touch and gets the most out of his distinguished performers, notably Carrie Ng as Mui's sultry stepmother(!). The backdrop is 1930s occupied Shanghai, and as could be expected, the Japanese enemy is portrayed with broad strokes. Still, Hidekazu Akai appears rather sympathetic as Mui's mild-mannered second love interest (Guess who's the first!). Not great art - as possibly intended -, just stylish melodrama with a good sense of time and place. | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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