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Rouge

Cantopop superstars Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung display the androgynous magnetism that made them icons 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 and Emily Chu) 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 SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Stanley Kwan, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• 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

I'm rather ambivalent on this but I'm just glad that Criterion are releasing films from Hong Kong that aren't martial-arts titles.

This is actually a nice and welcome surprise. I was meaning to see this for a while and it wasn't until early 2020 that I was able to do that thanks to a 35mm screening at Metrograph. (I also remember getting dinner in Chinatown afterwards and at the time businesses were hit hard by worries of COVID - the lockdown was probably a week or two away.) I really enjoyed it, and IIRC it wasn't available in a good HD transfer until now.

Wonderful news! And it is including Kwan's entry into the BFI's Century of Cinema series too!

anyone know who this was licensed from?

echoing the sentiments of them releasing more non-genre HK cinema. gonna keep my fingers crossed for Fruit Chan's Dumplings (2004)

ryannichols7 wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 5:27 pm anyone know who this was licensed from?

Fortune Star.

What a packed set. Wow!

colinr0380 wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 5:20 pm Wonderful news! And it is including Kwan's entry into the BFI's Century of Cinema series too!

If I'm thinking of the right documentary, legend has it that Kwan's attempts to discuss the latent homoeroticism in Chang Cheh's filmography resutled in the legendary director being in tears, and his wife ejecting Kwan from the premisies.

Again, legend has it...

So glad this one came out. The 4K restoration was only shown last year in the Shanghai International Film Festival. Now while you're on a roll bring on Derek Yee's melodrama C'est la vie, mon chéri, whose gorgeous 4K resto has no physical media release anywhere in the world!

It also played at the Beijing IFF and as part of the HKIFF's semi-comprehensive Kwan retrospective (missing only Showtime, which was completely buried after its disastrous Venice reception). But AFAICT it never played in the U.S., which makes it kind of surprising that this has bypassed Janus and gone straight to Criterion. There's also a 4K restoration of Lan Yu that doesn't have a physical release yet (despite the producer saying way back in 2019 that one would be out by the end of the year), but it's finally coming out in Taiwan next month.

Still Love You After All These is another rescue from VCD limbo, like As Time Goes By on the Boat People release—the two were actually a diptych of sorts, both produced by Peggy Chiao under the rubric "Personal Memoir of Hong Kong." I like Boat People and Rouge, but with both I've been more excited by the extras Criterion has managed to come up with.

Rouge is, in my opinion, Kwan’s best film, but I selfishly want Criterion to release Center Stage and Lan Yu from his restorations more, for I think those are even more overlooked. I know it'll be a long time before Criterion puts out another Kwan film but I hope they/another label can get to those one day.

I agree with the above posters; much like the Ann Hui disc, this getting *two* documentaries in the extras is the real special treat here.

The 4K restoration of Center Stage has already been released by Film Movement, though with several weird cuts of which I made a note in its own thread.

On the topic of non-genre cinema in Hong Kong, another recommendation for Criterion's consideration is Mabel Cheung's masterpiece, An Autumn's Tale. An immigrant tale directed by the other unsung heorine of Hong Kong cinema, set mostly in New York's Chinatown, featuring two of the most popular Hong Kong actors in the 80s, I'd expect this film fits right into Criterion's game. Also, the film has just received a 4K restoration that destroys the Kam & Ronson blu-ray.

andyli wrote: Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:42 am The 4K restoration of Center Stage has already been released by Film Movement, though with several weird cuts of which I made a note in its own thread.

Thanks! That makes it even sadder then, since a better release by another label is likely not happening. Hope someone else has snapped up the rights to the Lan Yu restoration.

On the topic of HK directors, Criterion has very impressively caught up with Tsui Hark, Johnnie To, Ann Hui, and Stanley Kwan in the last year alone. I’d argue the last big big name is John Woo, but we know his films are stuck in rights limbo. An Autumn’s Tale might be too slight for Criterion, but it would be awesome. After that, something by Patrick Tam would be nice, but he’s probably too obscure, I expect the genre labels to take care of most of action cinema. Actually, something by Stephen Chow would be fun! Then there are of course many more films by Tsui, To, Hui, and Kwan worth releasing.

andyli wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 11:49 pm So glad this one came out. The 4K restoration was only shown last year in the Shanghai International Film Festival. Now while you're on a roll bring on Derek Yee's melodrama C'est la vie, mon chéri, whose gorgeous 4K resto has no physical media release anywhere in the world!

If they’re gonna do a big Hong Kong romance like that, I’d much prefer Comrades: Almost A Love Story, which is a much better film. Viva Erotica, on the other hand, would be a great choice for Derek Yee.

Really happy to see this release, as I always enjoyed it and I’m glad I can mothball my old DVD. Center Stage would be awesome and I also second An Autumn’s Tale. I have always been more partial to the non genre Hong Kong films, so the more the merrier for me.

I'd agree with afilmciando that this is Stanley Kwan's best film. This is a major release to me and I'm glad that Criterion's interest in Hong Kong is beyond martial arts and Wong Kar Wai. Oddly enough, this is also Jackie Chan's third entry into the contemporary Criterion lineup as he served as a producer on this as a favor to Kwan. Plus with Janus Films' acquisition of The Heroic Trio, they quickly have two Anita Mui films set for release.

I also want to add that Yang ± Yin is among the best of the BFI's 100 years of cinema releases. Stanley Kwan's entry serves as a personal rumination on his own queerness and the under currents of queerness and gender with roots in Chinese opera. It's been a few years since I saw it, but there's plenty of clips from diverse films and a whole segment dedicated to the gender reversal in the films of Brigette Lin like Dragon Inn and Peking Opera Blues.

This would make a great double feature with A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), which also involves a lovesick female ghost; but its is done more serio-comically, while Rouge is more romantic. In fact, when I first saw these in the 80s, they were indeed shown in the same theater.

I hope Rouge will get a great restoration like Boat People did. HK films in that period don't necessarily have to look like crap as it is commonly believed. It all depends on whether diligent preservation and restoration of the source material has been done. A few years ago, the great HK comedy film director Michael Hui (no relation to Ann Hui) restored several of his films and released them on Blu-ray, and the result was some of the best Blu-ray transfers any HK film (of that period) had ever got. You can sample the picture quality on this bootleg YouTube upload.