Peking Opera Blues
by Hark Tsui
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung, Kenneth Tsang, Ma Wu, Sally YehDirector: Hark Tsui
Cinematographer: Hang-Sang Poon
Producer: Hark Tsui
Editor: David Wu
Producer: Claudie Chung Chun
Writer: Raymond To
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Subtitled); Vietnamese (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); Cantonese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Mandarin Chinese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-11-17
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Peking Opera Blues
Movie Review: Very strong female alliance and well character development.
Summary: 5 Stars
I used to love this one and consider it as a sentimental drama. It do has meaning something, in a hilarious, entertainment way. Now I own the DVD, play it over and over again. Finally I can read the hidden message. In it's multilayers there's a little bit of everything. It's feminism above all, IMHO.It doesn't matter if you know nothing about Chinese history. Tsao Wan could be the most bewildered role to the audience, rebel without a cause. She should knew her action might lead to her father's collapse. Though dress like a man, she's fragile inside. Sheung Hung is a material girl care about only her own profit, provide comic relief. She has justified herself by come to the rescue for Tsao Wan, still lovable. Pat Neil seems to be quite ordinary in comparison, actually toughest of the three leads. Helping uncle Fa escape shows her tenderness. Her wish to be an actress only got the blame everytime there're bad things happen. ( For ex. Troops wrecked the theater. ) Cause only male were allowed to perform on stage at that time. Then I found similar tradition in ancient Britain too. ( Shakespeare In Love ) Women were under restraint by old culture. She grew up in the troupe. She tried to prove her talent, how good she could be, seize every chance. But the first obstacle came from her father, how ironic. ( Well. " It's the trend of time, and the father merely trying to protect her " kind of speech. ) Though she has no ambition, was drawn into the revolute unwittingly. Sally Yeh was trained hard to perform her own acrobatics, without a stunt double. To make the character convincible. She's at her best, never can be more gorgeous than this role. To see greedy warlords scramble for power and profit. How flexible the manager ( Wu-Ma ) is. There're diversity characteristic in this hilarious film.
There're some outtakes in the trailer. The catchy ballad along with the soundtrack quite enjoyable. Those " hide and seek "
roar with laughter scenes. And the metaphor " Life is dramatic " theme. You can watch this film many times and still find things you missed before. My only criticism would be, if they spent more budget on shoot some substantial landscape, might persuade me it's in real Beijing. By the way, I think the English subtitle is O.K. but there's a pun joke it can't deliver well. While the warlord took Pat Neil to blackmail her father, he asked what's tonight's show? It was named " Stubborn King " the true meaning is " force her to be my concubine ". Sorry force you to tolerate my poor English.
Summary of Peking Opera Blues
An adrenaline-rush masterpiece, this period action comedy is so hyperactive and ingenious that it'll make your head spin. Along with John Woo's The Killer and Jackie Chan's Project A, Peking Opera Blues is one of the key works of a great period of Hong Kong cinema in the mid-1980s. Director Tsui Hark had been studying Spielberg under a microscope, but he uses the multilayered visuals knowingly, to capture the frantic complexity of a turning point in Chinese history. In a period of political chaos around the turn of the century, just before the first republican revolution, three women are thrown together: Cherie Chung as the daughter of a recently deposed warlord, who only wants to protect her jewel case from the loot-crazed troops; Sally Yeh as the daughter of the manager (Wu Ma) of a traveling Peking Opera company, who desperately wants to break the taboo against women on the stage; and Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia as the daughter of the newly installed warlord, and a dedicated revolutionary. All the characters converge upon an inn where the boisterous opera troupe is gearing up for a performance. Tsui transforms action slapstick into a form of acrobatic ballet, and a final shootout sequence on a crumbling tile rooftop is beyond thrilling: you'll believe a man can fly. --David Chute