Rouge (Chinese: 胭脂扣; Jyutping: Jin1zi1 kau3) is a 1987 Hong Kong supernatural romantic-drama film directed by Stanley Kwan, and starring Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung. The film is the adaptation of a novel with the same title by Lilian Lee.
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Plot
In 1987 Hong Kong, newspaperman Yuen is approached by a glamorous woman, Fleur, who asks to place a missing person advertisement for her lost lover Chan Chen-Pang. Disturbed by her odd behaviour and dated look, Yuen eventually learns that she is a ghost who died some fifty years ago.
In 1934, Chan, the playboy son of a wealthy Nam Pak Hong merchant, met and fell in love with Fleur, a popular courtesan at a teahouse in Shek Tong Tsui. The significant difference in their social statuses, coupled with the fact that Chan was already betrothed to his cousin, meant their romance was doomed from the start. Despite Fleur's support, Chan was unsuccessful in his pursuit to become a Cantonese opera actor. The desperate couple ultimately committed suicide by opium overdose in order to reunite in the afterlife.
Fleur explains that after waiting in the afterlife for half a century, she has returned to look for Chan, whom she believes has become lost. Sympathetic to her plight, Yuen and his girlfriend Chor decide to run the advertisement at their own cost, hoping to reunite the couple by 8 March, the anniversary of their deaths. However, no one shows up at the designated meeting place on that date. Yuen and Chor eventually stumble upon an old newspaper at an antique shop that reveals the truth: Chan had in fact survived the double suicide. Fleur confesses that she secretly drugged Chan, intending to take him with her whether he was prepared or not.
Yuen and Chor's continued search reveals that Chan later married his cousin and inherited the family business. After frittering away his inheritance, he now lives impoverished as a movie extra. They take an increasingly weakened Fleur to a film studio, where they finally track down an elderly, guilt-wracked Chan. Unable to forgive him, Fleur returns the rouge case he had given her fifty-three years ago and departs for the afterlife alone.
Cast
Anita Mui as Fleur
Leslie Cheung as Chan Chen-pang
Alex Man as Yuen
Irene Wan as Shu-Hsien
Emily Chu as Ah Chor
Kara Hui as Ghost
Lau Kar-wing as Movie Director
Patrick Tse as Brothel Patron
Ruby Wong
Jackie Chan Stunt Team – extra/stunts
Release
The film was made on a low budget but when the producers wanted to add special effects costing another HK$4 million, Kwan objected so they released it at the Taiwan Film Festival where it won three awards at the 24th Golden Horse Awards with Anita Mui winning the Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress and the film also winning for photography and art direction.
The film received a Region 1 Criterion Collection home video release in 2022.
