disgusting, overrated, pointless

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

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!

I got to watch this trailer inadvertently when it was part of a montage sequence honouring Chen Kaige with the Akira Kurosawa Award during last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, and I was actually thrilled to have caught glimpses of it. I thought the boo-boys were out too early in lamenting Chen's choice of Leon Lai in the titular role, thinking that he would ruin what would be a decent biopic about one of China's greatest opera singer.To me, those fears were quite unfounded, as I felt Leon Lai actually did reasonably well when under the thick operatic makeup to transform himself for his stage persona, from Mei Wanhua to Mei Lanfang, where portrays only female characters. But of course if put side by side with Chinese actor Yu Shaoqun, Lai paled considerably as Yu was obviously the better of the two, portraying the younger Mei who found his true calling when opportunity came knocking on his door, and deciding to seize it, yet being mindful all the time of where his roots were.And the best parts were of course the first act, where Mei decides to up the ante and challenge his master, the then largest opera star Shi Sanyan (Wang Xueqi) to a show-down of sorts if you will. Under his master's wing, he finds himself somewhat stifled in not being able to explore his roles much further, given the master's fear that his thunder will be stolen. At the encouragement of maverick magistrate and future sworn brother / business manager Qiu Rubai (Sun Honglei), he finds some new found confidence to test waters while still keeping true to the core of his character, thus earning new praise, and given one's talent with nothing much to lose, one will go for broke - win and you win all, lose and you have really no reputation at stake, in contrary to his master.It's about control, or the lack thereof. From early on we learn that actors in the days of the crumbling of the Chinese monarchy that they do not have any respect, and have to play to the whims of those with power, money and fame. Even then the child actors have to pander to lords with a penchant for young boys. Mei does not buckle his self-worth, and is pretty clear that while he portrays ladies in more feminine terms than real ladies, that it does not make him easy fodder. And we follow through his life how he does not get to live the life he wants to lead, but rather according to both the rules and regulations of the stage, as well as the same off it in society. Be it instructions from his managers, his wife Zhifang (Chen Hong) or the Japanese occupiers, each seemingly want to exert an influence over his career and personal life, not so much for personal gain, but to propagate that legend and persona so carefully crafted over the years.Naturally Mei finds an avenue to fight back, and does so through an affair of the heart. While he portrays females on stage, he meets his equal in Meng Xiaodong (Zhang Ziyi), who is his mirror opposite, the best in the business in playing male characters. Together they blaze a trail of glory, and naturally leads to tongues wagging. While Zhang Ziyi may share top billing, in actual fact she's nothing more than a supporting role, coming in only in the middle portion to highlight Mei's need for escape from his rigid world.Much is said about the supporting actors doing a far better job than the leads, and that is true, in a nice way. My respect for the Chinese actors have grown from watching a number of indie and mainstream films, and I can't credit the likes of Sun Honglei, Chen Hong, Wang Xueqi and especially Yu Shaoqun in being nothing less than superb each time they come on screen to chew up the scenery. It's not really fair to say the leads acted poorly, because the supporting cast had raised the bar in delivery, which adds to the enjoyment of the film.I can never forget the really poor movie in The Promise which Chen Kaige made a couple of years back. The story was so bad it allowed the special effects to run wild in trying to salvage the show. There aren't a lot of Chinese bio-pics (or at least those I have watched) in recent years that were non-martial arts related (think Ip Man, Wong Fei-Hung, Fong Sai-Yuk, Huo Yuanjia etc), and somehow I'm glad Chen Kaige found his mojo back to helm this, and in far elegant terms that I'm now better convinced to check out more of his filmography. He was able to shift gears quite effortlessly between distinct acts of the narrative, which straddled a timeline from after the Qing Dynasty to after the surrender of the Japanese. However, there might seem to be a quantum leap in addressing issues towards the last 30 minutes, but for everything else, it was paced quite evenly to keep you interest from waning.Forever Enthralled has all the ingredients of a credible epic, from beautiful set designs and art direction, to a wonderful soundtrack and elegant costumes, Chen Kaige does not scrimp in making this film look and feel just like it would back in those days of sheer opulence. While opera may be an artform that is dwindling here, don't let the Peking Opera focus here put you off, as you just might find some reason to want to watch the real thing if you have the opportunity to. Definitely recommended.

Dear Director, I can't help keeping comparing this movie with Farewell My Concubine, one of the best Chinese movies I have seen, which was also directed by you. Yes, having the same director, both tell us a story of Peking Opera singer(s), and both cover a turbulent era of certain decades during the twentieth century in China. I have to say, however, this one is disappointing, in many ways.I have no doubt about your directing skills just by watching Farewell My Concubine. There, the roles were hysteria, and it's original, intensive, surprising, and thrilling. In Forever Enthralled, you tried to use the exactly same style, but unfortunately, it feels unnatural and overdone, as you were transfered from a brave pioneer to a boring follower of the previous yourself.Like all types of arts, a real master piece can't be duplicated. Same as motion pictures. Farewell My Concubine is such a master piece that any mimicking trials afterwards, intentionally or not, turns out to fail, even though they are from the same director. There's nothing wrong to make another film of Peking Opera singers, but just don't use the same skill again and again.Dear Screen Play Writers, Did you realize the story is unbalanced? The first half of this film drags too long and the pace is way too slow, unnecessarily slow. I know you may want to emphasize Master Mei's earlier life experience that affected him so much, but the title of this film is not "The Teenager hood of Mei Lanfang".Visiting the US actually was an important experience of Mei and also a great step to give him the opportunity to gain the international fame. However, your film made this part too weak. It's finished in such a hurry in the audiences' applause before I got a chance to focus on the singing of the leading actor. Is this a trick just because the actor couldn't perform the Opera well even though he is a pop singer? Check La Vie en Rose (2007) to see how a movie about a singer can make the singing magnificent.Dear Ziyi Zhang, I didn't see much improvement of your acting skills from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Not bad, but not good enough either. Yes I'm picky. But it has a long way to go before a actor/actress becomes a top one.Dear Leon Lai, Maybe they picked you for this role because you're a singer, but this role turned out to be too weak and too blurry. Maybe this is not your fault. They just didn't select the right person to act Master Mei. Imagine in the movie Dream Girls (2006): if Beyonce played Effie White, the situation would be insanely different.Dear Honglei Sun, I usually don't like those characters you played in the movie, but this one is an exception. Congratulations! You acted so well that I thought this movie should be called "The Story of Mei and His Brother Qiu". YOU ARE LITERALLY THE LEADING ACTOR. They didn't give enough chance to let Mei sing, but you got enough chance to act, and acted the best compared with others in this movie. In this movie, you were a super fan of Peking Opera and a super fan of Mei. You quit your staple teaching job and followed Mei to explore his career, felt happier about his every success than himself, worried him more than anybody else when he was in trouble, and helped him become a real master. Good job! Good for Brother Qiu, but not that good for this film, because this film is not supposed to only focus on Brother Qiu.Dear Team, Sorry, frankly speaking, this movie is not enthralled.

This film was infuriating to watch. It boasts a very talented cast alright, but it is a far cry, nay, hardly an echo of FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE. It's almost like the director was trying to COPY snippets of his old self. Given that Farewell is one of my favorite films, I was utterly disappointed in Chen Kaige. He has completely lost his touch. From the hardly notable art direction, costumes, cinematography to foremost, the long and tedious plot which never builds into anything, Chen is a goner. In fact, I would say the fifth generation Chinese film directors are no longer worth watching. They have too much money and access and they are already devoid of stories to tell.Do not do what countless Chinese are doing, going to the movie just to criticize it. It generates box office money and gives the wrong sort of support to directors who no longer deserve to make films.I felt sick after 2.5 hours watching this tedious show.