Evidently,
in 1987 you could call everyone in Hong Kong with a pager account in a single
evening. You probably still do that today. Life moves quickly in Hong Kong,
especially for a lovelorn ghost. After fifty years, the spectral courtesan-prostitute
finally hopes to reunite with her long lost love in Stanley Kwan’s absolutely
classic Rouge (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s Hong Kong Cinema at the San Francisco Film Society.
Refined
prostitutes like Fleur could mix with high society in 1930s Hong Kong, but they
couldn’t marry into their ranks. However, Chan Chen-pang (a.k.a. “12th
Young Master”) the wastrel heir to a dry goods store fortune has different ideas.
He is not content to be Fleur’s paramour. He also wants to marry her. That
would be alarming enough for his staid family, but his plan to forgo the dry
goods business to pursue a career in opera is just too much for them.
Rather
than endure life separated from each other, the lovers resolved to commit
suicide together so they could start their next lives as a couple. At least
that was the plan. When Fleur woke up wherever it is that one does, she was by
herself. Having martialed her strength, she has re-entered the human world to
find him. Somewhat logically, she thinks to place a classified ad in a
long-running tabloid. There she has the good fortune of encountering Yuen, a
schlubby ad/sales rep ambiguously dating ambitious reporter Chu. After coming
to terms with the ghost business, they both agree to help her find her beloved
(including calling all those pager customers at one point).
Rouge is a sentimental
favorite of many HK movie fans, for reasons that are immediately apparent. It
is lushly romantic and touchingly bittersweet in all the right ways. The scenes
set during the 1930s have the elegance of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers of Shanghai (which it predates
by eleven years), while the contemporary narrative thread treats its
supernatural themes with down-to-earth understatement. In both time frames,
Anita Mui is arrestingly luminous as Fleur. Sadly, knowing she would succumb to
cancer at the terribly premature age of forty adds further poignancy to her
performance in retrospect.
Yet,
despite its lyric romanticism, Tai An-ping Chiu & Lillian Lee’s adaptation of
Lee’s novel acts as a corrective and rebuke to the unrestrained ardor that drove
Fleur and Chan to seal their suicide pact. In a significant moment, the 12th
Young Master gives Fleur a rouge box pendant. In contrast, Yuen gives Chu the
gift of a sensible pair of shoes when the audience first meets them. Its not
such a blingy gift, but they are what she really needs. Even though the modern
couple admits they would never commit suicide for each other, that also means
they will always be there for their partner. In fact, as great as Mui is, Alex
Man and Emily Chu arguably forge the more potent and endearing chemistry. Even
though he also met with a tragically early demise, Leslie Cheung is a bit of a
cold fish as Chan, but it would be hard for anyone to outshine Mui.
In
addition to all the aching romance and gently eerie supernatural goings on, Rouge also has the distinction of being
produced by Jackie Chan. It is a remarkably assured and accomplished work from
Kwan that captured Mui in peak form. It is just a hard film not to love. Very
highly recommended, Rouge screens
this Saturday (9/24) as part of the SFFS’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.
