FLEEING BY NIGHT (Ye Ben)
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Sound format: Dolby Digital
Tianjin, the late 1930's: A young cellist (Huang Lei) returns home from studies abroad and makes preparations to marry his childhood sweetheart (Rene Liu), the daughter of a wealthy businessman. But the relationship is soured when Huang meets and falls in love with a male Chinese opera singer (Yin Chao-te) who is being pimped by his mentor to a local gangster (Tai Li-jen). Tragedy ensues.
Several key personnel from CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON were reunited for this Chinese/Taiwanese co-production, including co-director Hsu Li-kong (longtime associate of director Tsai Ming-liang) and co-writer Wang Hui-ling. While it's a pleasant surprise to find a government-sanctioned Chinese film addressing a number of previously taboo subjects (corruption and hypocrisy in high places, gay romance, etc.), the results are decidedly mixed. Hsu's historical drama (co-directed with Yin Chi) relies for much of its dramatic impact on a measured accumulation of narrative details, mixed with all the expected trappings of traditional Chinese melodrama (villainous gangsters, thwarted love, enduring loyalty, lifelong tragedy, etc.). Too much time is spent on Huang's doomed relationship with Liu, and the subsequent romance between Huang and Lin is thwarted at every turn, frustrating audience expectations and leading some critics to question the film's sexual politics.
More a tragedy than a love story, the narrative builds to a genuinely heartbreaking conclusion: Few will be unmoved by a blunt, devastating sequence at the end of the movie in which Huang and Yin are 'reunited' after many years apart, all the more heartbreaking for the understated manner in which it is staged. Huang (LIFE ON A STRING, THE PHANTOM LOVER) makes an attractive and sympathetic protagonist, while Yin smoulders intensely in a difficult role, and Liu (who made an impressive debut five years earlier in the title role of SIAO YU) is quietly effective as the understanding wallflower laid low by her fiancée's deceit. Equally memorable is Tai, playing the nominal 'villain' as a sympathetic character hidebound by traditions and his place within Chinese society. Ultimately, some viewers will reject the film's deliberate pacing, while others will embrace its unassuming stateliness and grand romantic heart.
(Mandarin dialogue)
