Director: Yang Fan

Actors: Joey Wong, Rie Miyazawa, Daniel Wu

Genre: Romance

Release Date: October 18, 2001

Official Website .hk

Film Description: Same-sex, heterosexual entangled romance < /p>

In Suzhou in the 1930s, Cuihua, a courtesan at the Moonlight House, becomes the object of every man's desire with her extraordinary looks, and even more fascinating is her singing of Kunqu Opera. Admired by the men at the Delightful Moon House, she marries into the Rong family, a powerful local family, as a concubine, and suffers from the cold shoulder of the Rong family. Ronglan is a relative of the Rong family, in terms of seniority when and Cuihua's husband called brother and sister, as a daughter of Ronglan but has the ambition of the men, although the family is in decline, but is determined to be the era of women, free from the feudal constraints to be a heroine who wants to serve the country.

While both women, but the two were born on stage is a perfect match, in the singing of kunqu "Peony Pavilion", Cuihua played Du Liniang Ronglan played Liu Mengmei, the two a man and a woman but with a seamless, enviable outsiders! It is often said that "fake drama is real", this is absolutely true, in the play Du Liniang and Liu Sheng, but also outside the play, but also mutual admiration, vaguely actually have a same-sex love affair. And enough to close the moon and shy flower Cuihua, get the opposite sex crush is naturally expected, Rong's housekeeper is one of the crush. After a night banquet, Cuihua made a transgressive behavior, in the strict etiquette of the Rong House, to do this kind of thing to dishonor the family, since there will not be a good end. Cuihua was therefore expelled from the house, compared to the punishment of sinking pig baskets in some places, which is already merciful enough.

After being expelled from the Rong residence, Cuihua temporarily stayed at Ronglan's home, where more stories unfolded. The arrival of the handsome and suave Xing Zhigang brings unexpected fluctuations to both women's lives. Ronglan falls in love with Xing Zhigang at first sight, and her original desire to serve her country is stirred up by the primal urges of this "bad boy", and her emotions are unstoppable. However, fate is destiny, as the saying goes, "no fate opposite not meet", the two this love affair is ultimately no end, leaving only two helpless women, two hearts at a loss.

The cast: Joey Wong's screen masterpiece?

It's been a long time since I've seen Joey Wong discharged to the audience on the screen, and counting her absence from the Hong Kong movie scene has been six years long, which is really a pain in the neck for fans who love her. Yang Fan's "Garden of Dreams", finally see the long-lost Wong Cho Yin again, this time has disappeared her head of hair. It turns out that for the image of Ronglan in the film more masculine, she cut off her own and fans are ten minutes love long hair.

Wang's role in "A Dream in the Garden" was a difficult one, as she had to dress up in costume and sing kunqu, but she also had to show a woman's image as a man's man and had a couple of passionate scenes with Daniel Wu. The latter two should not be a problem for her, who has always been a good actress, but it is really a bit difficult for her to sing kunqu on stage by herself when she has never heard of it. In order not to let the audience disappointed in her performance, Wang Zuxian in kunqu singing really put a lot of effort, had specially come to Hangzhou with senior kunqu actor Wang Shiyu and Tao Tie axe to learn for five days of small student body and singing. Although it is still not a break into the right place, but should be limited to a few scenes is enough, especially her on-stage moves, there are really a few professional flavor. But just when fans were celebrating her comeback, there was disappointing news that Joey Wong was going to rest again! In her comeback after starring in this new film has not yet been released when the news, more or less to the audience some difficult to understand. Originally, I thought I could watch a few more movies starring her, but I didn't realize that it would be six years of shooting a movie and then she would be invisible again. I'm not sure if her decision has anything to do with her romance with Qi Qin and the rumors of their marriage, but I'm sure she's going to be away from the screen for a while, and I hope this movie isn't her last show!

Let Wang Zuxian from Taiwan to learn kunqu is not too difficult, after all, are Chinese are speaking Mandarin, and from Japan's Rie Miyazawa to sing kunqu is really too difficult for her. However, the Japanese dedication is indeed worth emulating, she also personally ran to China to learn a few days of kunqu, although still do not know what they babble and sing, but the costume is still no less than this Du Liniang more or less God-like. Among actresses, Miyazawa Rie is also considered a sentimental woman, because she has committed suicide for love several times. This Japanese woman is really different when she plays emotional scenes, and the language barrier does not affect her performance too much in the movie. Her performance in the movie is even better than that of the outstanding actress Joey Wong. At the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival, she won the Best Actress honor for her outstanding performance in the film, which is the best recognition of her performance in the film. It's hard to know what to make of the fact that a Japanese person acting in a Chinese movie is better than a Chinese person. What is more regrettable is that the male lead actor, Daniel Wu, staged a scene on the screen in which the female lead was naked in the shower. Although he sacrificed his sex life, he was not praised, but was regarded as having the suspicion of fabrication, which is really a sacrifice not worth it!

Film director: "A Dream in the Garden"

Yang Fan, who started writing movie reviews and taking photographs when he was 16 or 17 years old, should be regarded as one of the earlier filmmakers of his generation. Yang Fan's cinematography skills have always been appreciated in the industry, and although he has been quite successful in switching from cinematography to directing, he is not one of those prolific directors. The works he has released so far are not that many, the 1998 film "Love of a Beautiful Boy" was evaluated quite well by the outside world, and the film "A Dream in the Garden" won him an International Critics' Award at the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival. These achievements are hardly representative of Yang Fan's accomplishments and influence in the film industry, and the most convincing thing is that he is considered an aestheticist director in the circle, and he has always managed not to lose his aesthetic style in pursuit of commercial interests. His style in this film has once again been perfectly demonstrated, the beautiful scenery of Suzhou gardens, Kunqu opera in the gorgeous costumes, Wang Zuxian and Miyazawa Rie, Wu Yanzu, the groom and daughter, all for the visual beauty of the film to add a lot of color.

Yang Fan is regarded as an aesthete in the film industry, and I can't say how accurate that is, or whether he agrees with it, but at least it shows that his style has been recognized by the outside world. Yang Fan's pursuit of aesthetics may have a lot to do with the fact that he once traveled to Europe and America and was very enthusiastic about photography, music, dance and other arts. After combining the artistic concepts of the East and the West, Yang Fan ultimately believed that the divine beauty of Eastern art was incomparable. The fact that the film takes place in Suzhou, a paradise on earth that was in the midst of change in the 1920s and 1930s, and that he intersperses Kunqu Opera with a lot of flavorful music in the film is a clear indication that Yang has made a good intention to seek out the beauty of his work. However, nothing is perfect, and the story of the movie is a bit flawed compared to the beauty of the scenes and visuals. The lack of results in several relationships and the decline of that era are all things that are not beautiful, but putting these flawed things into a beautiful picture may be the director's deliberate action. Strong contrast will make the ugly uglier and the beautiful more beautiful, this move for beauty is kind of brilliant, isn't it?

Background: The origin of "A Dream in the Garden"

The Peony Pavilion has always been a popular kunqu opera, and the most fascinating part of the play is the love story between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei, which is both real and unreal. After reading the poem "Guan Guan Ju, on the continent of the river; My Fair Lady, Gentleman's Marty" in the Book of Poetry, Du Liniang was inspired to write her own poem. The words, Du Liniang born sentimental feelings, in the maid with a tour of their own backyard garden after more raw spring feelings, came back to dream with a handheld willow in the garden of the gentleman had a rainy love, in the dream woke up alone into the backyard garden to find the dream of the lover boy. Thus, Du Liniang's "touring the garden", "dreaming" and "searching for a dream" in Kunqu's "Peony Pavilion" are also created. This movie takes the names of two of these sections as its title, interpreting a dream of a garden tour in the 1930s.

According to Yang Fan, the film is also based on a true story, with the two protagonists being Gu Jianqiu, the mother of Gu Zhengqiu, a famous Peking opera singer, and Wu Jilan, his teacher. But in the movie, the famous Peking Opera actress was transformed into a famous kunqu actor, and all the kunqu parts in the movie were accompanied by the Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Troupe, with first-class dan actors Wang Fengmei and Yang Juan singing behind the scenes. Zhao Zhigang, a famous Yin School actor from the Shanghai Yueju Theater, made another cameo in the movie, playing the second butler who has a crush on Rie Miyazawa. The star of the opera world didn't give a single opera performance in the movie, which was another cameo by Zhao after his last cameo in the movie <>.

Bringing together so many masters of opera and show business to do performances in a movie is really rare in the usual movies. The combination of elegance and splendor of gardens, kunqu, and beautiful women is a bit of a dream come true before you even visit the gardens!

BT download address:/btsearch.php?query=%D3%CE%D4%B0%BE%AA%C3%CE&type=0