Classic Queer Chinese Film “Rouge” Opens At NW Film Forum

It’s not a new film and it’s even available in a gorgeous Criterion DVD/Blu-ray but Stanley Kwan’s dreamy 1987 Cantonese language film ROUGE is definitely one to check out at a live cinema screening. Especially for LGBTQ+ audiences who enjoy swoony melodramatic films full of color and passion. And, you’ll have that chance starting this week at Northwest Film Forum on Capitol Hill.

The story:

Cantopop superstars Anita Mui Yim-fong and Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing display their iconic androgynous magnetism as doomed lovers in this emblematic film of Hong Kong’s Second New Wave, directed by pioneering queer melodrama master Stanley Kwan. Rouge bridges past and present in its tragic romance between a humble courtesan and the wayward scion of a wealthy family, who embrace death by suicide pact amid the opulent teahouses of 1930s Hong Kong. Fifty years later, she returns to the city-state to find him, drawing a young contemporary couple (Alex Man Chi-leung and Emily Chu Bo-yee) into her quest to rekindle a passion that may be as illusory as time itself. With its lush mise-en-scène and transcendently melancholy mood, this sensuous ghost story is an exquisite, enduringly resonant elegy for both lost love and vanishing history.

Rouge starts its run on Wednesday, January 25th. The schedule for this run:

Wed Jan 25: 7.00pm PDT

Thu Jan 26: 7.00pm PDT

Sun Jan 29: 4.00pm PDT, 7.00pm PDT

Wed Feb 01: 7.00pm PDT

Thu Feb 02: 7.00pm PDT

$14 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 Member

Tix: https://nwfilmforum.org/films/stanley-kwan-anita-mui-leslie-cheung-rouge-in-person-only/