Text: Michelle Chow

Portraying the life of the legendary master of Chinese Opera, the movie Forever Enthralled brings Mei Lanfang to life in flesh & blood.  The film is divided into 3 parts: the life of young Mei Lanfang; the relationships between Mei Lanfang, his wife Fu Zhifang and lover Meng Xiaodong; and finally his life during wartime, concluding his relationship with Qiu Rubai.

The movie focuses on the relationship between Mei Lanfang and Meng Xiaodong while he has a wife, Fu Zhifang and his career is controlled by his sworn brother Qiu Rubai.  The story of Mei Lanfang I cannot really comment on since it’s Mei’s biography; however, I find Qiu’s character a bit contradicting.

The opera performance of young Mei (Yu Shaoqun) was a pleasant surprise.  After applying the flawless makeup, you have to wonder: Is that a he or a she?  Did he (or she) really sing the songs?  I think Shaoqun is good simply because his really looks like a girl when wearing the opera makeup; portraying the young Mei doesn’t require any exquisite acting skills – just being gentle and soft when talking and walking. That’s it.

With a quality of melancholy, Leon Lai is the best candidate to portray the adult life of Mei Lanfang to audiences.  His amount of effort in learning the dance and performing an opera is clear in various scenes. Lai can appropriately convey the emotion of Mei – no matter if it’s the subtle emotional interaction with Meng, his endurance to his domineering wife or the ingenious refusal to the “invitation” to perform for the Japanese government during wartime.  The only thing I’m not completely satisfied with is his appearance – he doesn’t look as beautiful as Leslie Cheung (in Farwell My Concubine) when playing a lady in the Chinese opera – but after all, we only have one Leslie and he is no longer here.

We don’t discover much information about the background of Fu Zhifang in the movie, except for being the wife of Mei.  Too bad that all those important parts performed by Gillian Chung are cut out – not even a glimpse of her face during the wedding ceremony.  As Fu, Chen Hong shows us the strong character of Fu in defending her family from being exploited by Qiu and her marriage from the invasion of Meng.  Strong but not losing her noble quality, the performance of Chen enlightens me and makes me sorry I didn’t know her before this movie.

The relationship between Qiu Rubai and Mei Lanfang is very delicate.  In his first letter to Mei, Qiu expresses his confusion towards the gender of Mei.  To stay with Mei, he would even give up his profession.  When this feeling grows and possesses him, he hurts Mei.  Is this a very subtle homosexual love between two men?  Audiences have to decide for themselves.

Last but not least, let’s talk about the performance of Zhang Ziyi.  I can only remember her in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but surely she is one of the best actors in this film.  Her opera performance is brilliant; her sentiments against Mei, her suppression and reluctance to give up her love of Mei… Zhang appropriately handles the emotions that audiences naturally expect from her outstanding performance.

It is not fair to compare the movie Farewell My Concubine and Forever Enthralled as they are totally different in nature.  Farewell is fiction while Forever is a biography.  It’s easy to give life to virtual characters but it’s hard to recreate the lives of real entities.  Actors and actresses in Forever have successfully done that, and done a great job of it.  My only dissatisfaction in the movie is the editing.  I think because of the length of the movie and also the Gillian-Edison incident, a lot of useful information about the story is compromised.  This minor shortcoming shouldn’t stop you from seeing this well acted and interesting movie… it’s a must see!