Temptress Moon

To be shown: 23 February 2002

China 1996 (subtitles)
115 minutes
Directed by Kaige Chen
Leading players - Gong Li, Leslie Cheung, Kevin Lin.

Synopsis

The film begins in 1911 at the time when China's final monarch, Pu Yi, abdicated the throne. (Pu Yi was the title character in The Last Emperor.) We are shown China at this period through what befalls our protagonist Zhongliang (Leslie Cheung) who proceeds from being an idealistic 11 year old - when he is introduced to the Pang family, whose fortunes are based on the opium trade - to become in turn a sex slave, opium servant, hardened gangster and gigolo. His experiences are to be seen as a symbol of China's loss of innocence and tradition through the influence of the opium trade and Western culture.

The body of the film deals with the consequences of Zhongliang's return from Shanghai to the Pang compound on the command of his gang boss whose aim is to acquire the Pang fortune. However, Zhongliang rediscovers his conscience as long-forgotten memories and family secrets return like a fever.

* * * * * *

In many of Chen's films there is a deep sadness, and here again he stretches his characters over a chasm of social change refusing to give them a lifeline. This is a pessimistic and highly personal film epic about social and individual moral decay, but please don't be put off! The cinematography (Chris Doyle) is stunning - a sumptuous feast, but also a trap, the visual beauty becoming addictive like the opium and the sex to the characters in the film. Doyle and Chen have spun a magnificently seductive fever-dream as if drawn from the characters' own opium-induced delirium.

All the main characters are flawed and many exceedingly selfish. This is a romantic film but definitely not in the Hollywood sense. Here we focus on people who seduce and destroy each other. This film is still banned in China for its rather explicit treatment of sex and opium addiction.