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A Soul Haunted by Painting
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Yu-liang leaves a brothel in a small Chinese town, to become the second wife of Mr. Pan. While Pan is away at the revolution in Yunnan, Yu-liang learns to paint and takes art classes at the Shanghai Art Institute, until it is closed for painting nudes. Because she cannot bear him a son, Yu-liang leaves Pan to his first wife, and studies art in Paris, where she wins an award for a nude self-portrait. She returns to join Pan in Nanking in the 1930's, and becomes a Professor until it is discovered that she came from a brothel. She returns to Paris to live the rest of her life there, and finally gains a major exhibition of her work.
| Release : | 1994 |
| Rating : | 6.6 |
| Studio : | Shanghai Film Studio, |
| Crew : | Director of Photography, Director, |
| Cast : | Gong Li Da Shichang Derek Yee Tung-Sing Zhao Wei Sabine Bail |
| Genre : | Drama Romance |
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Reviews
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
To see the about 35-year-old Tung-shing Yee's playing is why I try to search for this film and got to watch it. Unfortunately, it does not amazed me so much but gave me lots of chances to feel uncomfortable at the everywhere Chinese movie tradition, like the familiar faces from Shanghai, the city and the hometown of Director Hwang, the inproper repeating appearance of the same supporting actors and the poor cosmetics of Yee at Pan's old ages. Anyway the lament ending, especially the ending of the Pans' in China some what tells us something about the afterwards of China 1949 and tries to imply about the Culture Revolution, but at last did not and could not gave it clearly. At the beginning I catch the film's step closely but could not help leaping along at the latter part:)
Gong Li plays Pan Yuliang one of the first Chinese women ever to be acclaimed outside China. We follow her life as she grows up, becomes a prostitute and then decides that she wants more and begins to become an artist of some renowned. In an ironic twist she ended up living much of her life in exile (hence why she was known in the West) because the Chinese didn't care for her art or her life style.This is a very beautiful but very dull film. Its best described as a fantastic looking by the numbers biography.This isn't a bad thing but there isn't enough life to keep you watching it from start to finish. Personally I was hitting the fast forward early on and graduated to stepping through chapters of the DVD. Its not bad as such but its not very interesting (released in connection to CUNY and its TV station)
Gong Li, as Pan Yuliang, and Zhang Yimou, as "Supervisor", add their prestige to this film by woman director Huang Shuqin. It seems than many film productions have been planned in China, too many stressing the lurid brothel background of the artist.This film dramatizes the turbulent life of Pan Yuliang (1899-1977), the first Chinese woman artist to be recognized in Europe. Faced with the dismal future as a prostitute, Yuliang (Gong Li), a maid in a brothel, suddenly finds refuge/ happiness with well-bred/ compassionate Pan Zanhua (Er Dongsheng), a customs official. In an attempt to quell gossip he makes her his second wife. Yet, they are forced to move to Shanghai where he teaches her to read and write and introduces her to Hong, a Western style painter. She shows talent in painting nudes at the Shanghai Art Institute, until it is closed by prudish authorities. Unable to bear a son for Zanhua, Yuliang encourages him to `return' to his first wife (Shen Hairong). She then goes to France on a government art scholarship. (She actually received top scores at the Nat'l Art School in Paris and then received a Rome scholarship.) After several years, she has gained peer recognition.In Nanjing, Yuliang is welcomed back by Zanhua and idolized by art students as a professor of art in the National Central University. Her happiness is short-lived when her work is discredited because of her brothel background and by a China not ready for Western Art. She and Zanhua make the heart-breaking decision to separate.Yuliang returns to Paris to remain for decades in poverty, totally devoted to art. Her culminating triumph, shared with her long-time friend Wang Shouxin (Shichang Da), was her exhibition at the prestigious Musée D'Orsay.In a sub-plot, He Qiong (Zunxia Gao), is the artist friend in Shanghai who urges Yuliang to go with her to Paris. There, Yuliang is unable to help Qiong who is victimized by a Chinese wheeler-dealer in arts. **************************************Her wish to have her work given to the Peoples' Republic of China was fulfilled in 1985. There have been >20 exhibitions of her work, including controversial nudes, in various cities in China and Taiwan. `She has become a household name in China'.For the sake of art, it is "fortunate" that Pan Yuliang remained a self-exile in France. It is not likely that she and her paintings would have survived the Cultural Revolution.Articles on Pan Yuliang and some of her distinctive paintings can be found on Internet: "Pan Yuliang".
It is not a Shakespearean drama, though. But other than usual (stereotypical) Chinese movies, it touches the viewer's heart and mind, proving that good stuff can be done anywhere and anytime, despite the location and difference of ideals.
