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Monday, May 19, 2008

FLEEING BY NIGHT (2000)

Told in flashback by a lonely old Chinese/American in NYC, the first half of this film is an atmospheric and touching account of his young manhood (late 1930s) when he returned to China after studying music & banking in the States. He & his putative bride (quite the feisty modern girl) find themselves in a hopeless romantic attachment to a ‘Kun Opera’ performer and, for a bit, this plays like an Asian DESIGN FOR LIVING between two men and their gal pal. But filmmakers Li-Kong Hsu & Chi Yin don’t trust the story’s natural contours & suddenly we’ve got child molestation, murder, WWII, & exile from home & country. Still, the first half is bewitchingly handled with superb design well caught by elegant directorial technique and a pitch-perfect cast, with Chao-Te Yin a standout as the opera star in a debut perf of restraint, stillness, beauty & kinetic combustibility that wouldn’t have shamed Buster Keaton.

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