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Peking Opera Blues (1986)
"Do ma daan" (original title)

7.3
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Ratings: 7.3/10 from 1,292 users  
Reviews: 13 user | 9 critic

The movie is set in chaotic 1920's China, when warlords fought each other for power while Sun Yat-Sen's underground movement tried to establish a democratic republic. The movie tells the ... See full summary »

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Title: Peking Opera Blues (1986)

Peking Opera Blues (1986) on IMDb 7.3/10

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6 nominations. See more awards »

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Cast

Credited cast:
Brigitte Lin ...
Cherie Chung ...
Sally Yeh ...
Pat Neil
...
General Tsao
Ma Wu ...
Paul Chun ...
Mark Cheng ...
Ling Pak-Hoi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kwok Keung Cheung ...
Tung Man
Ging Man Fung ...
General Tsao's officer
Ha Huang ...
General Tun
Feng Ku ...
Commander Liu
Paul Lai ...
General Tun's adjuntant
Hoi Sang Lee ...
Soldier with Moustache
Po-Chih Leong ...
Mr. Kam
Sandra Ng Kwan Yue ...
General Tun's wife
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Storyline

The movie is set in chaotic 1920's China, when warlords fought each other for power while Sun Yat-Sen's underground movement tried to establish a democratic republic. The movie tells the story of three young women and two young men who are thrown together. One young woman grabs a box of jewels during the looting when one warlord takes Peking. A deserting soldier joins her, but the jewels end up at the Peking Opera. Here we meet the daughter of the head of the troupe, who dreams of being an actress. But even female roles are played by men in the opera. Soon, the daughter of the currently ruling warlord and a male agent of the democratic underground are involved. Written by Reid Gagle

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Comedy | Action

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Release Date:

6 September 1986 (Hong Kong)  »

Also Known As:

Knife Horse Dawn  »

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1.85 : 1
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Goofs

About 25 minutes in, when Tso-Wan (Brigitte Lin) cranks the Rolls Royce to start it, the sound track has the sound of a starter motor cranking an engine. See more »

Connections

Remade as All About Women (2008) See more »

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User Reviews

 
Not for beginners
26 June 2007 | by (London, England) – See all my reviews

Opinion seems pretty evenly divided on PEKING OPERA BLUES. One camp regards it as possibly the best film to come out of Hong Kong in the last twenty years, while the other camp thinks it's "stoopid".

Oddly, I come down somewhere between the two.

The first thing to understand is that POB is NOT a kung fu film. Yes, it has fighting in it. It has gunplay and it even has torture. But it is not a kung fu film. Mostly, it's a comedy adventure and those of us familiar with Hong Kong cinema will be well-aware that Hong Kong humour is, at best, an acquired taste, especially for us gwai-loh.

The next thing to understand is that its importance lies in the way it completely subverts the traditional gender roles in Chinese society. Some of this lies on the surface - in the way that Cherie Chung's character tries to get some stage acting in but is chastised by her father for it (at this time in China, all female roles on stage were played by men). Some of this lies in the subtext - in the way that Brigitte Lin's character is completely in charge of both her female and her male companions. And some of it lies in between - in the way that Lin dresses as a man (a long and honorable tradition in Chinese storytelling), but a bit odd here as she's not actually *disguised* as a man.

Add to this that all three female leads are headstrong women who know what they want (Brigitte Lin is just stronger, even, than the other two) and that the men are followers (Mark Cheng follows orders, then Brigitte, and Kwok Keung Cheung just follows Mark) and you can begin to see the impact this must have had when it came out in 1986 - years before we had Xena Warrior Princess or Veronica Mars.

Overall, I think POB is a good movie, though probably not a great one. When I watch it (I have the dodgy DeltaMac DVD release with the eccentric subtitling - "There's a girl. Knock her up!") I just can't help feeling that this should have been much better than it was.

Maybe if Tsui Hark were to do a remake today, POB would be the movie it always deserved to be ...


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this is tsui harks greatest film! Trigonias
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no in print NTSC Region 1 DVD? a shame grant-132
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a must for all Brigitte Lin fans denizen_blank
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