Fleeing by Night

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Fleeing by Night ★½ Ye Ben 2000

Oldfashioned romantic melodrama set in 1930s China. A small town businessman owns a theater and invites a Beijing opera company to perform there. His naive daughter Wei Inger (Liu) is smitten by moody performer Lin Chung (Yin) as is (unexpectedly) her Americanschooled fiance Hsu Shaodung (Huang). But the twosome have a rival for Lin Chung's affections—the wealthy and jealous Huang Zilei (Tai), whose sexual interest is blatant. The dialogue is frequently florid (as probably befits the setting) and it's operatic soap all the way. Mandarin with subtitles. 123m/C DVD . TW Rene Liu, Lei Huang, Chaote Yin, Lijen Tai, AhLeh Gua; D: LiKong Hsu, Chi Yin; W: HuiLing Wang, Mingxia Wang; C: Chenghui Tsai; M: Chris Babida.