Temptress Moon
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Movie Reviews of Temptress Moon
Movie Review: Behold the fine work of Zhang Yimou
Summary: 5 Stars
It is never easy to see the beauty of Zhang's work and I'm pretty picky in what I watch, but when Zhang usally puts his wife (Gong Li) in it, you can bet it's one of the better films. Any love story from Zhang is to be honored, especially this one for its fascinating well design characters. The innocence of Ru Yi (Gong Li), Danwu's loyality and desire to serve his elder sister, and Zhongliang's style of charming and motives. I couldn't take my eyes off it for all the interesting situations and scenes are so unexpected. I can tell you that I have watched the movie more than four times, stil it never got old to me.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.)
DVD EXTRAS: None
Movie Review: Farfetched plot but great acting, scenery and location
Summary: 4 Stars
This 1996 Chinese film is set in the sophisticated Shanghai of 1920 as well as the surrounding area. It is a fascinating drama including opium smoking, love, lust and revenge. There's a beautiful young woman, who has been raised to prepare opium for her father and brother. As her brother is paralyzed, she inherits the family home but despite her wealth, she is unhappy. A distant male cousin serves her and falls in love with her. But she falls in love with her sister-in-law's younger brother who has fled the household years ago because of a shameful secret and now makes his living romancing and blackmailing wealthy women in Shanghai. The plot thickens.
Sound complicated? Well, it is. But that didn't stop me from watching the story unfold in spite of the farfetched plot. The scenery was beautiful. The acting was excellent. And the location was exotic. And so I relaxed and just enjoyed the film. Recommended.
Movie Review: about the movie temptress moon......
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought the DVD from Singapore videoshops and have grabbed a copy and watched....hee hee....The story is about old chinese period where it involved the loving between the opposite party and the not loving situation where the actress finally get poisoned by opium and the actor killed by bad company he joined in shanghai after he left the old family style and wnt all the way to shanghai to study. There are a few scenes which are filmed in dark situation that show that the actress have sex. It is done in a smart way to such an extent that film censoring department are not able to say that these are sexual scenes. Recommended to those whom are interested in this genre of DVD film/movie.
Review by:
(Dr)Ang Poon Kah
Rogue university professor certificate
PhD (Prof) in political science from Cambridge University and NUS.
PhD (Prof) in Neuroscience from Cambridge University and NUS.
PhD (Prof) in Technology from Cambridge University and NUS.
PhD (Prof) in Security System from Cambridge University and NUS
PhD (Prof) in Computer from Cambridge University and NUS.
PhD (Prof) in film from Cambridge University and NUS.
PhD (Prof) in Business from Cambridge University and NUS.
PhD (Prof) in Electronics Engineering from Cambridge University and NUS.
Bachelor degree in computer studies from Techco University
Zakkers film director
imagine entertainment for film/movie the Da Vinci Code.
Movie Review: The film was not quite there for me
Summary: 3 Stars
I must admit to being slightly disappointed in Temptress Moon. The film looks good. Gong-li always looks good. And the film does a good job showing the corruption in government and lifestyle that was the Nationalist Period. According to the film, The China of Chiang Kai-shek and the decadence of the period was not good for the people of China.
"Temptress Moon" has a lot of beautiful touches but essentially lacks a story. So much of this movie should have worked and just didn't. The premise of the young man, Zhong Liang escaping from his incestuous sister only to become a gigolo in Shanghai was fascinating. Unfortunately the story lost steam when Zhong Liang returned home to seduce his childhood acquaintance played by a mature, robust Gong Li. Somehow it doesn't add up when the thirty something year old Gong Li is referred to as "Gu Niang" (young girl). The innocence and naiveté she displays when she is being seduced by Zhong Liang is not believable. From the start she seems like a woman on the make, as though she never stopped playing the wile prostitute in "Farewell My Concubine". Similarly, the various layers of deception and sexual confusion in the film just lead nowhere.
Unfortunately, the film is quite slow. The film lacks those unforgettable moments of the many 5th Generations films. Don't get me wrong, the film is a good period peace and shows the horrors of Opium. But ultimately, it needed to move up a couple of notch's.