Rouge
Cantopop superstars Anita Mui Yim-fong and Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing display their iconic androgynous magnetism as doomed lovers in this emblematic film of Hong Kong’s Second New Wave, directed by pioneering queer melodrama master Stanley Kwan. Rouge bridges past and present in its tragic romance between a humble courtesan and the wayward scion of a wealthy family, who embrace death by suicide pact amid the opulent teahouses of 1930s Hong Kong. Fifty years later, she returns to the city-state to find him, drawing a young contemporary couple (Alex Man Chi-leung and Emily Chu Bo-yee) into her quest to rekindle a passion that may be as illusory as time itself. With its lush mise-en-scène and transcendently melancholy mood, this sensuous ghost story is an exquisite, enduringly resonant elegy for both lost love and vanishing history.
Director-Approved Blu-Ray Special Edition Features
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Stanley Kwan, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
- New conversation between Kwan and filmmaker Sasha Chuk
- Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, a 1997 documentary by Kwan exploring the representation of queerness and LGBT identity in Chinese film
- Still Love You After All These, a 1997 memoir film by Kwan about his Hong Kong identity
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim
New cover by Jason Raish
Director-Approved Blu-Ray Special Edition Features
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Stanley Kwan, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
- New conversation between Kwan and filmmaker Sasha Chuk
- Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, a 1997 documentary by Kwan exploring the representation of queerness and LGBT identity in Chinese film
- Still Love You After All These, a 1997 memoir film by Kwan about his Hong Kong identity
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim
New cover by Jason Raish
Cast
- Anita Mui Yim-Fong
- Fleur
- Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing
- Twelfth Master
- Alex Man Chi-leung
- Yuan Ting
- Emily Chu Bo-Yee
- Chu
- Irene Wan Pik-ha
- Shu Hsien
- Tam Sin-hung
- Twelfth Master’s mother
- Chu Shui-tong
- Twelfth Master’s father
- Lau Kar-wing
- Director
- Huang Pa-ching
- Fortune teller
Credits
- Director
- Stanley Kwan
- Adapted from the book by
- Lillian Lee Pik-wah
- Written by
- Chiu Kang-Chien
- Produced by
- Jackie Chan
- Director of photography
- Bill Wong Chung-piu
- Art direction by
- Piu Yeuk-muk
- Horace Ma Kwong-wing
- Costume design by
- Horace Ma Kwong-wing
- Wan Fung-lan
- Music by
- Michael Lai Siu-tin