Mei Lanfang (2008)

Director:

Kaige Chen

Writers:

Kaige Chen (screenplay)
Geling Yan (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 December 2008 (China)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Plot:

A biographical account of Mei Lanfang, China's greatest opera star. |

Awards:

4 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Leon Lai	...	Mei Lanfang
Ziyi Zhang	...	Meng Xiaodong
Honglei Sun	...	Qiu Rubai
Hong Chen	...	Fu zhifang
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masanobu Ando	...	Ryuichi Tanaka
Yanjun Bi	...	Mei Yu-tian
Bin Li	...	Qiu's Mother
Mingchen Li	...	Lao Song
Shengsu Li	...	Yan Huizhu
Jingxi Liu	...	Mei's Grandmother
Jixian Lu	...	Lu Er Ye
Yueming Pan	...	Zhu Huifang
Qian Po	...	Journalist Qian
Xiaoman Shi	...	Ma San
Xueqi Wang	...	Shi Sanyan
Gang Wu	...	Fei Er Ye
Da Ying	...	Feng Zi-guang
Zhi Yin	...	Wang Weichen
Shaoqun Yu	...	Young Mei Lanfang
Xiaotong Yu	...	Little Mei Lanfang
Shaohua Zhang	...	Song Ma

Also Known As:

Forever Enthralled (International: English title)

Runtime:

Germany:147 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

Country:

China | Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Hong Kong:IIA | Taiwan:GP | South Korea:12

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Company:

China Film Group

Trivia:

China's official submission to 82nd Academy Award's Foreign Language category (2010).

Soundtrack:

Ni Dong Wo De Ai

Not Enthralled -- messages to the team

Dear Director,

I can't help keeping comparing this movie with Farewell My Concubine, one of the best Chinese movies I have seen, which was also directed by you. Yes, having the same director, both tell us a story of Peking Opera singer(s), and both cover a turbulent era of certain decades during the twentieth century in China. I have to say, however, this one is disappointing, in many ways.

I have no doubt about your directing skills just by watching Farewell My Concubine. There, the roles were hysteria, and it's original, intensive, surprising, and thrilling. In Forever Enthralled, you tried to use the exactly same style, but unfortunately, it feels unnatural and overdone, as you were transfered from a brave pioneer to a boring follower of the previous yourself.

Like all types of arts, a real master piece can't be duplicated. Same as motion pictures. Farewell My Concubine is such a master piece that any mimicking trials afterwards, intentionally or not, turns out to fail, even though they are from the same director. There's nothing wrong to make another film of Peking Opera singers, but just don't use the same skill again and again.

Dear Screen Play Writers,

Did you realize the story is unbalanced? The first half of this film drags too long and the pace is way too slow, unnecessarily slow. I know you may want to emphasize Master Mei's earlier life experience that affected him so much, but the title of this film is not "The Teenager hood of Mei Lanfang".

Visiting the US actually was an important experience of Mei and also a great step to give him the opportunity to gain the international fame. However, your film made this part too weak. It's finished in such a hurry in the audiences' applause before I got a chance to focus on the singing of the leading actor. Is this a trick just because the actor couldn't perform the Opera well even though he is a pop singer? Check La Vie en Rose (2007) to see how a movie about a singer can make the singing magnificent.

Dear Ziyi Zhang,

I didn't see much improvement of your acting skills from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Not bad, but not good enough either. Yes I'm picky. But it has a long way to go before a actor/actress becomes a top one.

Dear Leon Lai,

Maybe they picked you for this role because you're a singer, but this role turned out to be too weak and too blurry. Maybe this is not your fault. They just didn't select the right person to act Master Mei. Imagine in the movie Dream Girls (2006): if Beyonce played Effie White, the situation would be insanely different.

Dear Honglei Sun,

I usually don't like those characters you played in the movie, but this one is an exception. Congratulations! You acted so well that I thought this movie should be called "The Story of Mei and His Brother Qiu". YOU ARE LITERALLY THE LEADING ACTOR. They didn't give enough chance to let Mei sing, but you got enough chance to act, and acted the best compared with others in this movie. In this movie, you were a super fan of Peking Opera and a super fan of Mei. You quit your staple teaching job and followed Mei to explore his career, felt happier about his every success than himself, worried him more than anybody else when he was in trouble, and helped him become a real master. Good job! Good for Brother Qiu, but not that good for this film, because this film is not supposed to only focus on Brother Qiu.

Dear Team,

Sorry, frankly speaking, this movie is not enthralled.