Do ma daan (1986)

Director:

Hark Tsui

Writer:

Raymond To (writer)

Release Date:

6 September 1986 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Comedy | Action

Plot:

The movie is set in chaotic 1920's China, when warlords fought each other for power while Sun Yat-Sen's...

Plot Keywords:

Opera | Transvestism | Gunshot Wound | Gun | Sword Fight

Awards:

6 nominations

Cast

Brigitte Lin	...	Tsao Wan
Cherie Chung	...	Sheung Hung
Sally Yeh	...	Pat Neil
Kenneth Tsang	...	General Tsao
Ma Wu	...	Mr. Wong
Paul Chun	...	Fa Gum-Sao
Mark Cheng	...	Ling Pak-Hoi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kwok Keung Cheung	...	Tung Man
Feng Ku	...	Commander Liu
Hoi Sang Lee	...	Soldier with Moustache
Po-Chih Leong
Sandra Ng Kwan Yue
Dean Shek
Yin Szema
Ching Tien
David Wu

Also Known As:

Peking Opera Blues (Hong Kong: English title) (USA)
Dao ma dan (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Knife Horse Dawn (USA) (literal English title)

Runtime:

USA:104 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:12 (re-rating) (2000) | South Korea:15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (cut) | West Germany:16 | UK:18 (re-release) (uncut)

Company:

Cinema City Film Productions

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: 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.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Art of Action: Martial Arts in Motion Picture (2002) (TV)

A carousel of colors and suspenseful (yet, sometimes improbable) situations, all for the sake of the republic!

In Peking Opera Blues, director Tsui Hark takes us back to 1913 China: daughter of the general Tsao-Wan [Lin Ching Hsia] is torn between the love for her father, who plans to secure a loan from the Europeans in order to aid president Yuan, and the support for a rebellious group, who see in Yuan's leadership a peril for the republic and therefore plan to unmask him by stealing the loan papers and handing them to the congress.

The movie follows the deeds of three women, different by social class (one is daughter of the general, another one a greedy street musician whose goal is to get rich and leave China, the third one a theatre performer - or, more precisely, an aspiring theatre performer, as acting at the time was only allowed to men) and, yet, put together by Fate. As the three eventually join forces, we get to see a lot of colorful Peking Opera performing, as well as amusing and endearing situations. The movie, indeed, deals with the problems of mutual trust and loyalty, especially in those situations when the ideals come to clash against the personal ambitions.

The only aspect of the movie I was a bit put off by is the ease with which the group is always able to escape the most dangerous situations. Even the hardest-to-die Bruce Willis would have been puzzled on how to leave the mansion... and Spiderman himself would need more than one try to leap successfully from a mansion to the top of a tower! Apart from this, Peking Opera Blues is a beautiful movie, more over enriched by a gripping soundtrack, dazzling theatre choreography and, most of all, an intense story that is sure to make you smile with joy at some moments and shiver with terror in other circumstances. 8/10