Thursday, December 4, 2008

2008-12-04 梅蘭芳 Mei Lanfang

Chinese Title: 梅蘭芳 Mei Lanfang
English Title: Forever Enthralled
Director: Kaige Chen


Kaige Chen, the director of Farewell My Concubine, has his newest movie come to Taiwan in the mid December.

The movie is a biopic about the life of the most famous Chinese opera actor—Mei Lanfang. I was glad to learn that he was making a movie about Mei. I am a huge Chinese opera fan. I had a great environment that provided plenty of opportunities to see Chinese opera when I was a kid. I remembered a put on my mother's skirt and imagine I was a elegant lady, singing and dancing in front of a mirror. In addition to my love for Chinese opera, I also love to see historical films. I was really looking forward to seeing Mei Lanfan in the movie theater.

However, when I knew the leading actor and actress were Leon Lai and Ziyi Zhang, my passion for the movie completely extinguished. Even though I occasionally see movies starry Leon Lai or Ziyi Zhang, I ever like their performance much.

Then, I forgot things about this movie for a while.

Few days ago, I accidentally saw the still pictures of Mei Lanfang, I was enthralled by one of its pictures. This is the one. I love it very much.

I am a Chinese opera fan who is used to see Chinese opera actors or actresses putting up heavy makeup and wearing beautifully embroidered costumes. I was amazed by this picture. I can't help thinking one quesiton: "Who is the man and who is the woman"?

In the story, Ziyi Zhang is a woman and Leon Lai is a man; and on the stage of this story, Ziyi Zhang is a man and Leon Lai is a woman. I love this kind of surreal confusion.


And this still picture stirred up my curiosity, and then I saw few of the movie's trailers online.

My enthusiasm for Chinese opera and historical films came back to me immediately.
Yes, I am going to see this movie when it comes to the theater.

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