Review: Rouge

Mui plays Fleur a ghostly courtesan from the 1930s 

To start off 2024, we looked back and watched Rouge, a Hong Kong movie from 1988 starring Anita Mui Yim-fong and Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing at VIFF.

It is sad to note that 2023 was the 20th anniversary of both their untimely deaths, Cheung from suicide on April 1, 2003, and Mui on December 30 that year from cervical cancer.

I had never seen the film before and it was made before June 4, 1989, when Hong Kong was well on its way to becoming an industrious powerhouse, with textiles, film, and finance. 

Cheung's character falls for Fleur in Rouge

Rouge was adapted from Lilian Lee Pik-wah's novel of the same name, and the film directed by Stanley Kwan. The story is set in a brothel in 1934, when Chan Chen-pang, a wealthy merchant's son (Cheung) is mesmerised by Fleur, a courtesan (Mui) and they fall for each other.

However, his family vehemently objects to their relationship and so the couple decide to commit suicide to be together forever.

Fast forward to 1987 when Fleur approaches a newspaper guy named Yuen to put an advertisement in the paper for Chan to meet her on a specific day and place. But Yuen soon realises she's a ghost during a comical scene on the tram going to Shek Tong Tsui.

Fleur is so out of place and cannot adapt to the modernity of 1980s Hong Kong. Perhaps it's because she is a ghost and has only one goal in mind, to reunite with Chan.

After overcoming their fears of what Fleur is, Yuen and his girlfriend, a reporter, try to help her find her lover from over 50 years ago, and thank goodness for the antique shops along Hollywood Road because they hold some clues that help them figure out what happened to Fleur decades ago.

Watching Rouge I couldn't help but notice how beautiful both Cheung and Mui were at the time. Her character Fleur has been a courtesan since she was 16 and is well aware of her social standing and fate, whereas Chan only thinks of being with her and becoming a performer on stage.

A newspaper man named Yuen meets Fleur

They are a couple fuelled by romance and idealism, whereas Yuen and his girlfriend are more down-to-earth and honest with each other, perhaps shaped by the different times they live in, or societal values changed in half a century.

Lilian Lee's story is very clever, with lots of opportunities for funny scenes interacting with a ghost and Kwan adapts it with scenes jumping back and forth between 1934 and 1987. The scenes in the past seem to be saturated with colour, whereas contemporary Hong Kong seems a bit drab and dark for the most part! 

There's also a bit part for Patrick Tse Yin -- in his much younger and better-looking years, and interestingly stunts performed by Jackie Chan! 

In any event, Rouge is an enjoyable film that takes its time to reveal the story, making you wonder if you will ever encounter a ghost and if you did, what would you do?

Rouge

Directed by Stanley Kwan

Based in a novel of the same name by Lilian Lee

93 minutes