The Phantom of the Opera [1995]

Ye Ban Ge Sheng (The Phantom Lover) [1995]
Song Danping… Leslie Cheung.
Wei Qing… Lei Huang
Yun Yan… Chien-lein Wu

I had to review this one after watching the movie because of needing to read the subtitles and this is one to catch everything in it you really need to pay attention and because of the cinematography, you don’t want to look away.
This one is the one that moves away from the original story. It combines a story of The Phantom of the Opera and Cyrano de Bergerac together. It is also based on a Chinese movie that was from the 1930’s called Song at Midnight.
There are two stories that told. It begins with the story of Wei Qing and Lan Die who arrives at a burned down theatre, trying to get there theatre troupe up and running. They are working on their own piece that seems to be a failure. A man soon tells Wei Qing the story of the burned down theatre and the man who helped build it… Sung Danping.
We flash back to Sung Danping singing on stage in the role of Romeo in his Romeo and Juliet. Yun Yan watches him on stage. We quickly learn that they are in love but she is to marry a Baron. Yun Yan tries to get a message to Sung Danping to meet her so they can elope but her plan fails, and the Governor burns down the theatre with Sung Danping in it, and Yun Yan marries the Governor but the marriage in annulled after he finds out she is not a virgin. She ends up in the streets and has gone mad. She still shows up at the theatre to hear Sung Danping sing to her on every full moon.
Back to the 1930’s, Wei Qing’s theatre troupe are about to leave. Wei Qing learns that Sung Danping did not die in the fire and is still there in the theatre. Sung Danping gives Wei Qing his Romeo and Juliet and teaches him to sing the role of Romeo, at first Sung Danping sings from a hidden spot for him.
The Baron was there and heard Wei Qing sound like Sung Danping. He meets with them and begins to try and destroy the relationship of Wei Qing and Lan Die. Sung Danping also has Wei Qing wait for him onstage, and he begins singing. Yun Yan shows up believing he is Sung Danping. Because of this Sung Danping has Wei Qing pose as Sung Danping for Yun Yan because she hasn’t smiled that much in ten years.
Later, Yun Yan finally realizes that Wei Qing is not Sung Danping and runs away. That night she sees the real Sung Danping staring at her through the window, and she runs after him. He only stops when the Baron shoots her. Sung Danping goes after the Baron.
Back at the theatre Wei Qing is about to perform in Romeo and Juliet, and the Governor shows up to arrest Wei Qing for killing his son, the Baron. Sung Danping shows up to them know what had actually happened. They arrest the Governor and his son, who is finally brought out tied up hanging from the ceiling (not choking or anything like that). Wei Qing and Lan Die’s troupe will be allowed to continue. Sung Danping and Yun Yan leave together, but she is blinded by the gunshot wound, and he is finally able to show himself to her.
They let us believe that this movie is actually going to have a happy ending until it blacks out and a cue card tells us that a year after the events Yun Yan dies, and Sung Danping lives single for the rest of his life until he dies in 1940.
This is actually one of my favorite version of this story. When Sung Danping sing for Wei Qing it truly goes back to the Svengali origins. I also love how it seems to have a Cyrano de Bergerac feel to it. The robe that Sung Danping wears throughout this version is highly reminiscent of the Don Juan robe in the ALW stage version (which I love). The cinematography in this movie I believe is the best in all the phantom movie there are some scenes that are so artistically done, they just blow me away! The music in this version is also some of the best, especially the pieces from Sung Danping’s Romeo and Juliet because they are composed by Leslie Cheung, the man who played Sung Danping. Unfortunately Leslie Cheung is no longer with us, which is terribly sad. He was phenomenal in this movie and hopefully soon I will finally be able to watch one of his other movies Farewell My Concubine.
On another note, the reason I am doing these this month is in honor of the 100th anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera that is happening this month. So, I found it pretty cool when I was done watching the movie and went to go watch the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Men’s Figure Skating, because Patrick Chen of Canada skated to music from Phantom of the Opera. Which was really cool.
Next time I will be reviewing The Phantom of the Opera [1925] The Lon Chaney version and the one that started it all!