Rob Haines
I am really surprised by some of the negative reviews of this film. In my view this is to thoroughly underrate it. When I watched this on DVD, I did not know that it was directed by the same person who directed Farewell My Concubine (Kaige Chen) also seen on DVD quite a while ago. It is not the same film and it did not strike me as a weak regurgitation of FMC. The plot kept me engaged and it did not feel too long, in fact I would have liked to have known what happened afterwards. It is beautifully staged and the cinematography is excellent. How historically accurate the film is I'm not sure. If you read the Wikipedia article about Mei Lanfang, his love-life was rather more complicated (and productive) than portrayed. The major historical 'facts' I am sure are accurate. The portrayal of personal life, relationships and emotions must inevitably be more conjecture and some aspects have to be simplified. Nevertheless, I loved this film and it way exceeded my expectations. I also love Farewell My Concubine - in my opinion if you love that film you will most likely enjoy this one - though clearly other reviewers disagree!
Hunky Stud
If you don't know anything about China and mei lanfang, I am sure that this movie is a little too hard to understand. After all, not every Chinese likes the Beijing opera. Just like many westerns are fascinated by the European royal families, many Asians don't really care about them at all. So it is the cultural thing.Over all, this is a good movie, but it is a little too long. Of course, it is hard to tell a life story of a person for such a short time.Shi Sanyan is really amazing. I felt as if he was indeed born in that time. It is also probably because I have never seen him on the screen before, so his performance was very fresh and authentic. Most of the supporting roles are very well performed. My mother thinks that the younger version of mei lanfang was better than the older version. The older version looks too stiff. I sort of agree with her.I am writing this comment because there are only nine comments before me. After all, this is a good movie, it deserves for more comments.
Harry T. Yung
After going somewhat astray with "Wu ji" (2005), director Chen, his loyal followers are happy to see, is back in form with this biopic of China's legendary Beijing Opera icon MEI Lanfang. While general consensus has it that this film does not quite reach the height of "Farewell my concubine" (1993), it is a step in the right direction, especially when you shudder at the realization of how low his one-time camera man ZHANG Yimou can sink, with the likes of "House of flying daggers" (2004) and "Curse of the golden flower" (2006). People just have to realise that not everybody can be Ang Lee. But I digressed.Structurally, two-and-a-half-hours "Forever enthralled" can be seen as a film in two parts. Part One, comprising the first 60 minutes, is "young Mei", without the stars Leon Lai and Ziyi Zhang. The ensuing 90 minutes is "middle-age Mei", covering the main events in his life from a top artist's predicament, an affair with a fellow artist, tremendous challenge of bringing a totally alien art form to New York, surviving with integrity and dignity during the Japanese occupation and triumphant return to the stage after victory. On the surface, this second half should constitute the soul of the film. And indeed, it is well acted and well shot. However, if you can only see half of this film, it should, without question, be the first half. It is just superb.Let me go into the second half first. Leon Lai portrays an introvert, emotionally lonely Mei at the height of his career, but seems to be in constant fear: fear that he cannot maintain his performance at the pinnacle, fear of life in general. While there are almost inevitable verdicts from some critics that he is poker-faced, Lai deserves better. While Mei shows little emotion, at least as portrayed in this script, there are times when nuances come through, especially his transformation in the New York venture and his determined resistance of the Japanese demand that he perform during their occupation of Beijing. Lai in general handles his role credibly.While Mei pays little attention to anything outside his art, two people virtually run his life. One is his mentor QIU Rubai, played by the larger-than-life villain you saw in "Seven swords" (2005), SUN Honglei – "playing against type – an actor of usually masculine parts finds fulfillment in the role of a thinker" as a local magazine aptly asserts. It is a role that Sun fills extremely well, stealing many a scene from our lead hero. The other is his pragmatic, no-nonsense wife FU Zhifang, played by CHEN Hong whom, if you have seen the aforementioned "Wu ji", cannot fail to remember as Goddess Manshen, with the most ridiculous hair-style that anyone has ever seen. Chen has turned in a solid performance.Ziyi Zhang is billed as the female lead not so much because of the screen time she has been allocated as the importance of her role MENG Xiaodong, an actress with whom Mei not only had the chance to collaborate, but also to fall in love. In her relationship with Mei, Meng is at various times coy, flirty, professional, affectionate and coldly determined. This is the best yet that I have seen of Zhang's performance.This "second half" then has all the elements and ingredient of high melodrama. It plays out as such, albeit at the high end of the scale of artistic melodrama.It is the first half that lifts this film a couple of notches. It has none of the stars in the second half, except for Sun, as Qiu appears very early in Mei's life. The theme of this first half is quite simple: Mei's rise to stardom through a dual of artistic talent with his grandfather and teacher, Shisanyan (or "thirteenth swallow", his stage name). The two initially perform side-by-side but when Mei's quest for innovation becomes almost insatiable, the two not only split up, but also end up in fierce competition. There is no animosity, only artistic pride and strive for excellence. Young YU Shaoqun plays youth Mei to perfection, and would have you believe that he has decades of acting experience behind him. But it is veteran WANG Xueqi's (the eccentric villain in "The warriors of heaven and earth" (2003)) portrayal of Shisanyan that is above perfection. Rather than a one-dimensional rigid old actor from the traditional school, Shisanyan is a human being of flesh and blood, proud but not vain, never patronizing his grandson and protégé who dares to challenge him. In Shisanyan's last show, to an all but empty theatre, we see two layers of unexcelled performance, by Shisanyan with tragic pride, and by Wang, playing Shisanyan. Then, there is the scene between young Mei and Shisanyan that will break the most cynical of hearts.The first hour of "Forever enthralled" is cinema at its best. The rest is just bonus.
