Temptress Moon

Temptress Moon
by Kaige Chen

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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Caifei He, Kevin Lin, Leslie Cheung, Li Gong, Shih Chang
Director: Kaige Chen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 127 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-07-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax

Movie Reviews of Temptress Moon

Movie Review: Gong Li and Leslie Cheung do it again!!
Summary: 4 Stars

When you think of great Chinese films, you think of director Zhang Yimou, actress Gong Li and actor Leslie Cheung. Well Temptress Moon has two of the three, Gong and Cheung and fills in the third with Chen Kaige. Chen is a the director of Farewell, My Concubine. Like Zhang, Chen is a master of the visual sophistication. His use of color is exceptional.

The Pang family runs the opium trade from their country estates. The head of the clan has two children, the older son and the much younger daughter Riyu. The older son is married. She has a younger brother, Zhongliang, who she brings to live at the estate. He is to study and prepare her husband's opium pipe. But after a while, he gets tired of his second class citizenship and poisons the opium, leaving his brother in law a vegetable.

Zhongliang escapes to the city and becomes an escort who blackmails his liaisons. When the head of the Pang family dies, Riyu is named as the new head with the help of a distant cousin, Wansu. Upon hearing this, the head of the gang that Zhongliang works for decides that it is time to send him back to the Pangs.

Zhongliang returns and sets his sights on Riyu. She responds to his advances but things takes an unexpected twist when he realizes that he cannot deceive her. To further complicate things, a third suitor enters the mix. Riyu was promised at birth to the eldest son of another clan but this was cancelled because of her opium use. He is now grown up and has decided to make his own mind up. Of the three he would be the most acceptable.

The film ends in Shakespearean tragedy.

This is a beautiful film with textured performances but the film belongs to Cheung. His role is the most complex. Gong is also very good but this is not one of her best roles (look to The Story of Qui Ju and To Live to see what she is capable of.)

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Summary of Temptress Moon

This motion picture epic is the latest triumph from the critically acclaimed director of FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE. Praised as another masterpiece, TEMPTRESS MOON is a captivating story of a beautiful young woman, her seductive lover, and their struggle for power, passion, and revenge -- so shocking, it was banned in the director's own country! Highly provocative and filled with unforgettable sensual imagery, TEMPTRESS MOON is an absolutely riveting cinematic experience -- don't miss it!

Chen Kaige, the director of Farewell My Concubine, returns with another sumptuous, if hard to follow, film about old China. Set in the decadent 1920s, Temptress Moon tells the very complicated story of a wealthy family living on the outskirts of Shanghai. Their youngest daughter, Ruyi, is brought up as a servant to her opium-addicted father and brother. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law Zhongliang has a successful, if illegal, career seducing and blackmailing married women in the city. When he comes to Ruyi's home the two fall in love, and trouble ensues. Mostly, though, Temptress Moon is about beautiful images. The densely populated plot is basically an excuse for showing golden bells and bowls, pagoda roofs set against the moon, and richly woven carpets. More of a meditation than a movie, Temptress Moon is probably not as accessible or enjoyable as its critically acclaimed predecessor Farewell My Concubine, which may be a better place to start in the appreciation of contemporary Chinese cinema. --James DiGiovanna

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