The film plays like the work of a fifth-generation Chinese hack faking a lavish Hollywood saga on an indie budget: It's all soft focuses, sax flourishes, and silky slo-mos.
The Beauty Remains(美人依旧)
China, United States, Hong Kong · 2005
1h 27m
Director Ann Hu
Starring Zhou Xun, Vivian Wu, Zhiwen Wang, Lisa Lu
Genre Drama, Romance
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Set in 1948 against the backdrop of Communism's rise, "Fei" is the story of two sisters--Fei and Ying--bound together by the will of their late father, a legendary business entrepreneur, and their shared love for a charismatic ex-boxer, Huang. They are two women whose paths have been dictated by the often cruel decrees of the men their lives--two women who must somehow transcend that influence...or lose everything.
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Hu, a Chinese-American immigrant who made a mid-career switch from business to filmmaking, approaches these characters with genuine passion and compassion, and her evident talent shines through the timeworn material. Acting by all three principals is tremendous.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
If aesthetics are a prime factor in your movie choices, you may get something out of Ann Hu's overwrought, but beautifully atmospheric, period romance.
Chinese director Ann Hu follows-up her tepid 2000 debut "Shadow Magic" with another luscious historical drama that, thankfully, is a lot more interesting. The plot is no less melodramatic, but here melodramatics work along with the film's theme, not against it.
An unappealing, stiff melodrama.
So beautifully filmed (as if through a gauze curtain), it is especially sad that the script doesn't measure up.
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