Temptress Moon (Feng yue, 1996)

Chen Kaige

China, Hong Kong

127 min, color, Mandarin (English subtitles)

I am still unsure about this film. I enjoyed it while I watched it, then I decided I did not particularly like it, but a day later thought that I had not given in enough thought and that it did in fact deserve a higher rating. The ambivalence comes mostly from the complexity of the script which requires some time to sink in. It is not that the plot is convoluted --- once straightened out, it is fairly linear --- but that the presentation was confusing. Structured around flashbacks, recollections, and some muted utterances by relevant characters, the film becomes a voyage of discovery, not always pleasant, while the viewer struggles to understand the characters without sufficient information about their background. Director Chen spoon-feeds us this information in miserly sips while what we crucially need are huge gulps. Judge for yourself. It is perhaps not surprising, although it certainly is no excuse, that most critics, including the venerable pundit Ebert, missed essential parts of the plot, thereby ruining their chances to properly evaluate the film.

WARNING. What follows is a synopsis of the plot in rough chronological order (i.e. not the way shown in the film). Those who prefer to uncover it by themselves are strongly urged to skip a few paragraphs to the comments.

The year is 1911 and the China reels amidst political turmoil following the news of the emperor's abdication. There is also trouble in the wealthy Pang household, a sprawling family of opium traders who can't seem to be able to keep their most prominent members from indulging in smoking the addictive substance. Our protagonist, Zhongliang (Leslie Chung), is about thirteen and lives in the forbidding place on account of his sister Xiuyi (He Caifei) who is married to Pang Zhengda. The treasure-filled mansion is spooky and ominous to the child, who is forced to prepare the opium pipes for his brother-in-law and his sister. There are murky implications of an incestuous relationship between Xiuyi and Zhongliang, when the latter is forced to kiss his sister by the opium-wasted Zhengda. The strain becomes too much for Zhongliang and he poisons his brother-in-law by putting arsenic in his pipe. He confesses to his sister and she quickly whisks him away to Peking. (This part, by the way, is what Ebert missed.)

Ten years later, Zhongliang is in the swirling cabaret world of Shanghai, where the roaring twenties are in full swing. He is a suave gangster, who seduces married women and then, at the appropriate moment, blackmails them for money. To the chagrin on his boss, he seems to be spending too much time with one woman, whom he seems unwilling to sacrifice. It is almost as if he has developed some feeling for her. Still, he refuses to acknowledge it.

In the meantime, the old Master Pang dies and his son, the brain-dead Zhengda inherits the headship of the household. Since he is mentally unfit to run it, the elders select his sister, Pang Ruyi (Gong Li), to formally "man" the position. Since she is but a weak woman, they also appoint a distant cousin, Pang Duanwu (Kevin Lin), who will presumably guide and correct her without aspiring after the family's wealth. Unfortunately for the elders, Duanwu, a childhood friend of Ruyi's is hopelessly in love with her and thus follows her every whim with almost pathetic devotion. Ruyi's first action as the new head is to expel all her father's and brother's concubines, an act of unwarranted cruelty that might have had something to do with the way she was treated as a child (never allowed to set foot in the ancestral hall). To the horror of the elders, Duanwu meekly supports her, failing in the very job he was supposed to be doing.

The trouble comes when Zhongliang's boss decides to send him to seduce Ruyi in order to extract some revenue from the opium dealers. Reluctantly, Zhongliang returns to the place he passionately hates. He sets about his task although it is much simplified by Ruyi's falling immediately and deeply in love with him. The strange game of attraction-repulsion then develops, as Zhongliang finds himself at odds with himself. On one hand, Ruyi is the embodiment of everything he despises and hates --- the old patriarchal order, the decadence of the opulent family (there seems to be an endless stream of objects getting carried insider the bottomless mansion), the backward rustic close-mindedness, and the opium addiction. On the other hand, her single-minded pursuit of her love for him is irresistible --- she goes as far as to sleep with the doting Duanwu in order to lose her virginity and prepare herself for Zhongliang. His resistance crumbles and although he does make an attempt to take her to Shanghai (on the pretext of running away with her to Peking), he is unable to complete the task and leaves her stranded.

Zhongliang returns to his home base and confesses his failure to his boss, who forgives him but requires him to finish the job with the woman in the Heavenly Scent Alley (the one Zhongliang has been dallying with). Repentant, shaken, and insecure, Zhongliang agrees. His boss, having decided to chuck the idea of ripping the Pangs off, decides to "cure" his underling by eliminating Ruyi's love for him. His idea is to let her see for herself what her lover does for a living. To this end, he dispatches one of his henchmen to bring her over and she witnesses the scene when Zhongliang's accomplices try to blackmail the other woman. Unexpectedly, the cheated woman leaps off the balcony to her death, shattering Zhongliang completely. The distressed Ruyi goes to see him one last time wanting to know whether he ever had any feeling for her or the suicidal woman. It is as if she is ready to forgive and forget as long as he love her. He denies it and rejects her again.

Some (short time) later, a suitor whose family had once rejected Ruyi shows up to ask for her hand and she agrees. Zhongliang returns to the Pang mansion to try to win Ruyi in a belated realization of his intense love for her. Too late, he is told, as she curtly brushes him off, determined to punish him with her marriage. In desperation, and prodded by his sister who hates Ruyi, he stuffs a pipe with arsenic and poisons Ruyi. Upon leaving for Shanghai, members of the Pang family intercept him at the docks and shoot him to death. Duanwu, the former weakling now cured of his love for Ruyi, becomes the head of the Pang household, formally presided over by the brain-dead siblings Zhengda and Ruyi.

Wew! Not a short story but not too complicated either. I simplified a bit by not narrating the interesting subplots about Duanwu and Xiuyi, which, although pivotal in the relationship between the two main characters, are still only supporting their sordid love affair that does not happen. Keeping the various sundry details of the plot together may be a challenge that detracts from the overall enjoyment while watching, but which, for some bizarre reason, seems to enhance the after-film experience. Regardless of what one thinks about the shallowness of the protagonists (and they are indeed quite shallow), the misery and pain they cause each other is profound. It is a film about the lack of redemption, about the weakness of love, about the frailty of human feeling, and about the perversity of its excesses.

Sumptuously filmed by Christopher Doyle, a long-time favorite of art-house Asian directors, Temptress Moon is visually mesmerizing. This quality helps carry the film along despite Chen Kaige's admittedly sketchy skills in the script department. The performances are flawless, with both Gong Li and Leslie Cheung enacting the quiet desperation of their lots with emotional restraint that betrays passions simmering underneath. He Caifei, who starred opposite Gong Li in the stunning Raise the Red Lantern, also delivers the goods as the emotionally scarred and spiritually devastated sister, who longs for freedom and affection but resumes her morally bankrupt life in the shadowy corners of the Pang mansion.

Thus, the film cannot be deemed a failure, as often charged by less patient critics. Although not a success because of the problems with the narrative which force viewers to concentrate, Sherlock-Holmes-like, on what, the heck is going on and why, the film still leaves lasting impressions, more like and aftertaste than anything identifiable. It is one of those films that come back in episodic flashes, reminding us that one need not consciously like something to feel its impact.

The DVD is not great. The picture lacks in detail, has compression artifacts, and is too soft to do justice to Doyle's skill. For a Chinese DVD, it is not the worst, but this film should see the light of day in a better release, preferably a R1 or R2 version (e.g. the recent superior French version of In the Mood for Love). The Mandarin soundtrack is pretty good. The English subtitles were more accurate than not but the timing seems off from time to time, making it hard to figure out who said what. Still, if one likes the film (as I reluctantly conclude I do), the DVD is a must before a better version hits the streets.

October 5, 2001.