Temptress Moon
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| Temptress Moon | |
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 Temptress Moon poster |
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| Directed by | Chen Kaige |
| Produced by | Hsu Feng Sunday Sun Tong Cunlin |
| Written by | Chen Kaige Shu Kei Wang Anyi |
| Starring | Leslie Cheung Gong Li Kevin Lin He Caifei David Wu< |
| Cinematography | Christopher Doyle |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films (US) |
| Release date(s) |  December 21, 1996 June 13, 1997 (wide) |
| Running time | 130 min |
| Language | Mandarin |
| IMDb profile | |
Temptress Moon (Traditional Chinese: 風月; Simplified Chinese: 风月; pinyin: Fēng yuè) is a 1996 Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige. It was banned in Mainland China for its sexual and drug-related content.[1]
[edit] Synopsis
The setting was immediately before the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the abdication of Emperor Pu Yi. Yu Zhongliang (Leslie Cheung), then a 13 year-old boy, arrives at the Pang estate near Shanghai to live there along with his sister Yu Xiuyi (He Caifei) and her husband, Mr. Pang. There, he is treated like a servant more so by his brother-in-law who forces him to kiss his own sister while intoxicated by the effects of the opium, and in revenge he poisons his brother-in-law (among his duties was to prepare his sister's opium pipe and he secretly placed the poison in the pipe) and flees, but a Shanghai gang finds him and embraces him.
A few years later, Zhongliang becomes a handsome gigolo blackmailer who seduces rich, married women to get money. The triad's modus operandi usually involves Zhongliang paying a visit to the women in their rooms (a secret rendezvous) whereupon he would usually send a clear signal to his cohorts by opening the curtains of the room's window. His partners in crime would then storm the room and stage a semi-mock stickup, capturing the illicit couple unawares by placing a black mask over their faces, similar to those worn by condemned criminals at the hangman's noose (Zhongliang would obviously be unharmed in the process). The victim would then be threatened with exposure of the licentious affair or alternatively pay a hefty sum to keep the matter under wraps, with the victim being made to believe that Zhongliang has been swiftly 'murdered' by the thugs. In this aspect, Zhongliang succeeds beyond his triad's wildest dreams and his boss, Biggie (Yin Tse; not to be confused with Patrick Tse) dotes on him like his own son.
By orders of his boss, Zhongliang returns to the Pang estate to seduce Mr. Pang's daughter Pang Ruyi (Gong Li), the new head of the household, and to blackmail her. Ruyi was also an opium addict, a legacy of the Pang family; who like the rest of China, could not resist the addiction. However, the hatred he once had for the Pang family and his loyalty to the triad starts to wane as they fall in love with each other. Throughout his liaison with Ruyi at the Pang estate, however, he does not openly declare his affections for her as he was haunted by his past and swore never to love ever again using aloofness and his icy nature to quell Ruyi's longing for him. His sister, although still regarded as one of the seniors of the Pang clan, was not as respected as before and she consistently reminds Zhongliang that Ruyi would not be a good choice for him as Ruyi is helplessly addicted to opium.
Sensing that Zhongliang was wavering in his stand, and no longer suitable to carry out his assignment and to quickly resolve this problem, the triad invites Ruyi to Shanghai and show her Zhongliang's real job during one of the triad's regular heists. She was accompanied by a distant relative, Duanwu (Kevin Lin) who acts as her servant in the Pang mansion and who secretly loves her. Although she was shocked that Zhongliang was involved in blackmail crimes, she was still very much in love with him and even dresses up in contemporary Shanghai clothing to impress him but was deeply hurt when she senses that he is unable to reciprocate her love as his unhappy past with the Pang family has clouded his judgment.
Ruyi stops loving Zhongliang for awhile after that, returns to her family home and becomes engaged to another man, Jingwu (David Wu) whom she was initially bethrothed to as Zhongliang tries desperately to get her back. Blinded by jealousy and anger, he poisons Ruyi (in the same manner as how he had poisoned his abusive brother-in-law) just before being gunned down by his own gang while trying to sail away in a port. In the final scene, Duanwu was proclaimed as the new head of the Pang clan in an elaborate ancestral ceremony while Ruyi was shown lying on a stretcher in a permanently disabled condition as a result of the opium poisoning.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Films directed by Chen Kaige |
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| Yellow Earth (1984) • The Big Parade (1986) • King of Children (1987) • Life on a String (1991) • Farewell My Concubine (1992) • Temptress Moon (1996) • The Emperor and the Assassin (1999) • Killing Me Softly (2002) • Together (2003) • The Promise (2005) |
 Cinema of China |
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Actors • Directors • Films A-Z • Film chronology • Cinematographers • Festivals • Producers • Screenwriters • |
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