|
Rating:  -
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
Rating:  -
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.
Rating:  -
Definitely worth pining for! I decided to purchase Temptress Moon after viewing the breathtaking, and devastating, Farewell My Concubine. Both movies feature the amazing talents of Gong Li and Leslie Cheung. So total is their transformation between the two films, it's difficult to believe that these are the same actors. While Concubine served as a historical epic, Temptress Moon seemed more along the lines of Shakespearean tragedy. Like Kaige's previous work, the characters' frustrations signify larger themes: domestic turmoil; gender repression; family conflict; etc. Although these themes concern the private sphere of life and are not as overtly political as those addressed in Concubine, they are just as much about power, its abuse and the resulting disfigurement of the human spirit.
Temptress Moon is by no means a romance. The movie succeeds in being lyrical and melancholy - more engrossing than entertaining. Despite the requisite tragic ending, I found the plot to be oddly satisfying! The waxing and waning fates of Zhongliang, Ruyi, and Duanwu intertwined to create a luminous study of the heart and its insatiable hunger. Overall, Temptress Moon was a clear reflection of the obsessions that ruthlessly dictate interpersonal affairs. Leslie Cheung, Gong Li and Kevin Lin give mesmerizing performances, while supporting portrayals like that of Caifei He as Zhongliang's sister and Yin Tse as Zhongliang's Boss are equally flawless. (Among the movie's many moral messages: "Don't Do Drugs!" :)
Rating: -
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.
Rating: -
This is a domestic drama of the 1920s when China was fought over by warlords and Shanghai was a city ruled by fat-cat Western and Japanese interests and Chinese criminals. The chaos and split-personality of China at the time is captured by the film.
What you can say about this movie is that it was not directed by Zhang Yimou who did (if I'm not mistaken) Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou which were excellent movies. "Temptress Moon" is similar to Zhang's work. But Gong Li, the lead actress, is less sensual than usual, the story is convoluted and complicated, and the plot strains credibility.
The lead male character, Zhong, is a Chinese Tom Cruise. The women all love him, despite the fact that he's a louse. He suffers horribly because they suffer because of their love for him. Nobody suffers as much as Gong Li. The photography is gorgeous. The movie is worth seeing and is intriguing -- but it's not good enough to see several times to puzzle out what is going on.
Smallchief
Television Show
Collectibles
Movie Searches
|
|
|
Search for posters,
art prints, photos, collectables, merchandise, toys, t-shirts
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TV Guide
Program listings, celebrity profiles, industry
gossip, movie reviews, puzzle.
More
Entertainment
& TV Magazines
This site is
Hosted
by Bluehost
Read
my Bluehost Review
Most Popular TV collectibles
|
|
Home
Articles
Images
Forum
Search
Shopping
TV Trivia
Watch TV
Wallpaper
