51
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Los Angeles TimesGene SeymourLos Angeles TimesGene SeymourAn exquisite love story directed with admirable subtlety and sensitivity.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe kind of old-fashioned, grown-up weepie in which the hearts of men and women are cracked, and the shards flutter through the story. Its directness is the movie equivalent of hot, fresh popcorn.
- 70New Times (L.A.)David EhrensteinNew Times (L.A.)David EhrensteinIf this all sounds masochistic, it most certainly is. But the filmmakers have rendered it with such grace and subtlety that the spectacle of three very intelligent people ruining each other's lives becomes irresistibly romantic.
- 63New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThe many opera scenes are so beautifully mounted, they make up for the moments when the story veers toward melodrama.
- 60L.A. WeeklyChuck WilsonL.A. WeeklyChuck WilsonThat decade-spanning finale allows the three leads to age onscreen and demonstrate their impressive range, particularly Liu.
- 60Film ThreatChris GoreFilm ThreatChris GoreCelebrated actor Lin Chung, whose voice seems to articulate something within himself.
- 50New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoAn overwrought Taiwanese soaper.
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThe story is hardly original, but this well-directed Taiwanese drama paints an intermittently vivid portrait of life on the Chinese mainland in the 1930s era.
- 10Village VoiceJessica WinterVillage VoiceJessica WinterThis dreadfully earnest inversion of the "Concubine" love triangle eschews the previous film's historical panorama and roiling pathos for bug-eyed mugging and gay-niche condescension.