I finally watched "Love in a Fallen City" directed by Ann Hui and released in 1984 a few days ago and witnessed what people said was over-carved about it. In fact, there wasn't any problem with the words in it. The problem was Hui's method, especially as a female director, wasn't as good as Stanley Kwan's or Ang Lee's later on. Of course, some people would say Kwan can't be put in the comparison because he's gay, and Lee is famous for being incredibly anal. But I saw a few interesting resemblances and connections from these Eileen Chang adaptations.
The Hong Kong and Taiwanese audience probably knows more that Chow Yun-Fat was a acclaimed actor in realistic and romantic genres before he became the hero in John Woo's movies. Hui was naturally one of his benefactors. The leading role in "Love in a Fallen City" made his unrestrained but affectionate image. Mabel Cheung's "An Autumn's Tale " was even one of his representative works. But everyone took him as an action figure for granted after Woo until Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" which dug the romanticism out of him again. But he was in fact the second choice after Jet Li passed on it. Comparing to the delicate quality and face features of Rene Liu who portrayed Eileen Chang herself in a bio-TV series, the leading actress Cory Miu in "Love" might fit Chang's traditional yet resolute quality better. Though she was criticized for not being traditional enough and plainly acted, I, however, think she presented the most vivid character out of Chang's writings to date, but she didn't fully develop her acting skill shamefully.
Wu Chien-Lien, who played a major part in Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman," was casted as the female leading role in Ann Hui's "Eighteen Springs" later on. It was an interestingly interactive interlude. Joan Chen, who was originated in Shanghai, is fully westernized and naturally the best choice for the Red Rose in Stanley Kwan's "Red Rose White Rose." Winston Chao, who was discovered by Ang Lee, was transformed from the modern gay yuppie in "The Wedding Banquet" to the womanizer in early twentieth century Shanghai in "Red." He was also casted as Eileen Chang's first husband Hu Lan-Cheng later on. Ang Lee also casted Joan Chen in "Lust, Caution" as Tony Leung's wife. There seems to be also some sort of a Eileen Chang curse to end acting careers. The White Rose in "Red" Veronica Yip was married and retired soon after it. Anita Mui in "Eighteen Spring" died at a young age. Tang Wei in "Lust, Caution" was casted away by the Chinese government after playing the instantly classic role. But she seems to be benefited from Chang again by getting a role in a newly released HK film. Maybe she'll play another role in another adaptation of Chang's someday later. Tony Leung and Joan Chen won their Golden Horse Awards together twice coincidentally, Ge You in "Eighteen" was already a Cannes Best Actor winner, and Leon Lai in the same film also won his Golden Horse Award later on. The late Taiwanese director Fred Tan's "Rouge of the North" is the only film adapted from Chang's fully-English-written novel to date. It also won a supporting actress a Golden Horse Award then and is the only film adaptation I haven't watched yet.
From "Love" to "Lust," besides Chang Zheng for "Rouge" and Lee Pin-Bing for "Eighteen," the rest of the dps were all westerners. It makes me wonder if it fits Chang's taste more by looking through a westerner's eye. Tony Hope for "Love" only shot five films in HK, and "Love" was the last one. There seems to be no record of showing his latter works. Christopher Doyle was naturally chosen for "Red" after his famous retrospective work in "Days of Being Wild," and the cinematography did make the film look outstanding. It didn't look like the same case for "Lust" but more like Lee's preference of recruiting the well-collaborated crews from previous works. For example, Frederick Elmes, who joined the film industry with David Lynch, worked with Lee in three of his films, "The Ice Storm," "Ride with the Devils" and "The Hulk." He is also Jim Jarmusch's preferable cinematographer. Rodrigo Prieto, who was nominated for an Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain," was firstly noticed for Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Amores Perros," which was beaten by "Crouching Tiger" at the Oscars in the Foreign Film Category. He must be given loads of reference films by the constant homework-giving Lee. His outstanding effort won himself a grand technical award at Venice Film Festival.
Lee recruited Lai Pan, the double Golden Horse Award winner for "Red," as the production and costume designer for "Lust." He, as a Korean, seems to know better about the period than the other HK and Taiwanese professionals. As for the score, the score of "Love" by the HK pop music godmother Lam Man-Yee still couldn't get rid of the cheesiness of HK pop music. The score of "Red" by the Taiwanese musician Johnny Chen has the surprisingly international momentum. Lee got the currently famous French composer Alexandre Desplat for "Lust." The continuously coiling melody distributes an epic spirit. The score of "Rouge" was by the late distinguished Taiwanese musician Peter Chang. I'm looking forward to its performance in the film.
Adapting Chang is of course a great challenge for screenwriters. "Love"'s Fengcho, "Rouge"'s Tan and "Red"'s Edward Lam all did it as a fan, but they didn't have much experience in screenwriting. HK blockbuster writer Chan Kin Chung showed his literate skills in "Eighteen" but fell average unfortunately, but his screenplay for Johnnie To's "Sparrow" two years ago won himself some reputations instead. As usual, Lee handed the work to his teammates Wang Hui-Ling, who wrote the teleplay for Chang''s bio-TV series, and James Schamus. The collision of east and west made the sparks that matched Lee's big picture once again and also brought Chang's adaptation to a whole new level. In fact, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "Flowers of Shanghai" is related to Chang as well. Apart from Heng Bangqing's original chapters from Ching Dynasty, it also took references in Chang's English translations necessarily. It boldly casted the modern figures such as Tony Leung, Carina Lau and Michelle Reis, Jack Kao was the only actor who got in touch with another Chang's adaptation "Rouge" before. Chiu T'ien-Wen's delicate adaptation, Huang Wen-Ying's exquisite artwork and Lee Pin-Bing's thoughtful shots all delivered Chang's infiltration of the story.
I have a not-so-unique imagination. If Wong Kar Wai filmed "Love" and "Eighteen" instead of Hui, the result would definitely be much better. He, as a representative director for romanticism of HK cinema, is good at making atmosphere that brings extra points to a film singly. I believe anyone who have seen "Days of Being Wild" and "In the Mood for Love" would agree with me. I also believe that Tony Leung got the part in "Lust" must had something to do with his work in "In" which made him a Cannes Best Actor winner. Kwan in fact considered Maggie Cheung as the Red Rose in "Red," but that's more related to "Yuen Ling Yuk" than Wong's films.
Postscript: the film adaptations of Chang's literature works
1984 Love in a Fallen City (Ann Hui, HK)
1988 Rouge of the North (Fred Tan, Taiwan)
1994 Red Rose White Rose (Stanley Kwan, HK)
1997 Eighteen Springs (Ann Hui, HK/China)
1998 Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Taiwan)
2007 Lust, Caution (Ang Lee, Taiwan/China/US)
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