I do have to admit, I found this film quite hard to follow. It moves very fast and also feels like it changes tonally on a scene by scene basis. Eventually, I just had to accept that it was an espionage movie with like five main characters (three women and two guys, though the female characters are ultimately given the spotlight most of the time) doing various spy things, at first for their own reasons, and then more or less for similar reasons? Maybe? I got what they were doing, but the why was a little fuzzier.
Thankfully, it was still a fun time, even if it was also a bit overwhelming and sometimes confusing. It balances all its different genres and tonal shifts well, and that's something that can be appreciated even without following the story beat for beat.
It's also got some very good action scenes, which I was hoping for, given the director, Tsui Hark, is known for mastering the action genre (I've seen his Once Upon a Time in China movies, which were really good from memory).
And overall, I feel pretty confident in saying Peking Opera Blues was good. If it got a remaster with slightly better subtitles one day, I'd happily rewatch it, because I also think some of my confusion came from the English subtitles not being the best.
Thankfully, it was still a fun time, even if it was also a bit overwhelming and sometimes confusing. It balances all its different genres and tonal shifts well, and that's something that can be appreciated even without following the story beat for beat.
It's also got some very good action scenes, which I was hoping for, given the director, Tsui Hark, is known for mastering the action genre (I've seen his Once Upon a Time in China movies, which were really good from memory).
And overall, I feel pretty confident in saying Peking Opera Blues was good. If it got a remaster with slightly better subtitles one day, I'd happily rewatch it, because I also think some of my confusion came from the English subtitles not being the best.