Chen Hong Movies

Inevitably recalling director Chen Kaige's 1993 masterpiece, the international smash Farewell, My Concubine, the sumptuous period epic Forever Enthralled (originally and more elegantly given the eponymous biographical title Mei Lanfang) dramatizes the life of Lanfang (Leon Lai), widely regarded as one of the most legendary opera performers in all of Chinese history. Though a male, Lanfang built his reputation on the basis of outstanding performances as female characters, and in fact, lived out his private life buckling under the weight of repressed emotions. Kaige structurally divides the epic into segments. The film commences with a 70-minute sequence that depicts Mei's reaction to a letter from his uncle, cautioning him against the dangers of an operatic career; in the years that follow, Mei recoils from social rules (wrought by his chosen profession) that severely restrict his actions. The narrative then moves forward in time by a decade, to a point where Mei has somehow managed to bound over the said limitations and establish himself as the single most popular opera star in all of China. Conflict lingers, however -- present in Mei's repeated on-stage duels with the performer Swallow 13 (an apocryphal character who represents a composite of several real-life figures), whose style is the polar opposite of his own. Kaige then moves ahead in time to explore Mei's efforts to juggle a second marriage to Fu Zhifang (Chen Hong) and his relationship with his manager, Oju Rubai (Sun Honglei), whose passion for Mei's on-stage craft (and, possibly, a desire for Mei himself) know no bounds. Sadly, a pitfall to Mei's familial security soon presents itself in the form of a young female admirer, Meng Xiaodong (Zhang Ziyi) with whom he lapses into a love affair. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Chen Kaige's first Chinese film since the poorly received, Hollywood-produced Killing Me Softly is based on a true story of an adolescent violin prodigy coming of age in Beijing. Raised in a small town, Xiao Chun (Tang Yun) is brought to Beijng by his devoted single father, Lui Cheng (Liu Peiqi), who recognizes his talent and is determined to make him a success. After losing a rigged competition for admission into a prestigious music school, Xaio Chun is taken as a student by a brilliant but distracted teacher, Jiang (Wang Zhiwen), and begins to become distracted himself by his twenty-something party-girl neighbor Lili (Chen Hong). He eventually leaves Jiang for more rigorous study under a more famous teacher, Professor Yu (played by director Chen himself), which leaves him torn between his burgeoning career and the loving father who has sacrificed so much for his benefit. Woven throughout the narrative are trenchant comments about the changing face of modern Beijing. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi