Rouge

Gorgeous romantic melodrama from queer cinema master Stanley Kwan about the haunting power of lost love starring the late Cantopop singer Anita Mui.

Fleur is a courtesan in a Hong Kong’s teahouses during the 1930s. After falling in love with Chan, the wealthy heir to a chain of pharmacies, she agrees to a suicide pact. Fifty years later, Fleur’s ghostly presence returns to Hong Kong in search of her lost lover, drawing a young contemporary couple into her quest to rekindle a passion left unresolved.

This gorgeously romantic melodrama is characteristic of queer cinema master Stanley Kwan, with its preoccupation with the interplay of past and present, and the societal restrictions placed upon women in a gilded, bygone eras. With exquisite mise-en-scène, and a moody, melancholic sensuality, Rouge is a haunting meditation on memory, time and love.