Peking Opera Blues VCD

Its makings are obvious. Tsui Hark rolled all the movies he ever saw into a giant joint, hunched over in the corner away from the other kids huffing on it and then, eyes streaming, hair crazed, heart pounding double time, high on the fumes of the movies he loved, in one long fugue state he directed the most sustained burst of cinematic inspiration ever put on film. Such an organic creature one doesn't know whether to call it a woman's movie, an action movie, a period film, a melodrama, a comedy, a musical, or a silent picture with sound? To be safe, consider it all of the above, plus more.

Time: early 1913. The cruel morning after for millions of Chinese. The Qing Dynasty had been overthrown in 1912, and much-loved Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist party was up to run the country until one of his supporters, the immensely powerful general, Yuan Shi-kai, forced Sun Yat-sen to hand over control of the country since General Yuan controlled the army. Sun Yat-sen did so in order to preserve harmony, and General Yuan instantly became a despot, revising the Constitution at will and holding onto power with generous applications of force. In many ways it was even worse than the benign mismanagement of the deposed Qing Emperor.

Negotiating a huge loan with the Europeans on behalf of General Yuan is General Cao, newly installed in Peking (now Beijing). Yuan hopes this loan will float his pirate government but, unbeknownst to anyone, General Cao's daughter, Tsao Wan (Brigitte Lin), is a secret revolutionary assigned to stop the loan from going through. Having to oppose her own father and most of the Chinese government, Tsao Wan finds motley assistance from Pat Neil (Sally Yeh) the daughter of an opera company owner who dreams of the stage, even though women are barred from performing; and Sheung Hung (Cherie Chung) a courtesan who only wants one thing: gold, and lots of it. These three women are thrown together and the movie tracks the evolution of their relationship, from utilitarian using of one another to genuine friendship.

With action choreography by Ching Siu-tung, Peking Opera Blues is not the stiff costume drama its plot description tags it as. Incredibly fluid, this is a movie about longing, duty, slapstick, desire, corny folk, the opera, revolution, farce, gunfights, and the eternal nostalgic present that is Chinese history. Playing on so many genres at once that it ultimately transcends genre and becomes that rarest of movie creatures: truly alive.

Perhaps the finest moment in the careers of Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung, Sally Yeh and Tsui Hark, Peking Opera Blues may also be the finest moment for movies, period. Representing the best of everything that movies can be, Peking Opera Blues is the finest moment of one hundred years of film.

by Grady Hendrix