Peking Opera Blues

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Peking Opera Blues
Directed by Tsui Hark
Written by Raymond To
Starring Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung, Sally Yeh
Release date(s) 1986
Running time 104 min
Language Cantonese
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Peking Opera Blues (TC: 刀馬旦, SC: 刀马旦, pinyin: Dāo Mǎ Dàn) is a 1986 movie directed by Tsui Hark. The movie combines comedy, Hong Kong action, and serious drama with scenes involving Peking Opera. The film is set in 1913, and depicts the adventures of a team of unlikely heroines: Tsao Wan (Brigitte Lin), a patriotic rebel who dresses as a man; Sheung Hung (Cherie Chung), a rich woman in search of a missing box of jewels; and Pat Neil (Sally Yeh), the daughter of a Peking Opera impresario.

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[edit] Title

The Chinese title translates as Knife Horse Actresses, a term used in Peking Opera to refer to male actors playing female warriors. It is sometimes erroneously translated as Knife Horse Dawn, due to the fact that both words are represented by the same Chinese character.[1]

[edit] Responses

The film grossed $17,559,357 HKD in Hong Kong.[1]

In his introduction to the Region 1 DVD of Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express, Quentin Tarantino refers to Peking Opera Blues as "one of the best movies ever made".

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Jenny Kwok Wah Lau, 'Peking Opera Blues: Exploding Genre, Gender and History', in Film Analysis (Norton, 2005), p. 739.

[edit] External link

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