Now available from 88 Films
A concubine turned taoist finds her new life both more free and more dangerous after she connects with a maid and a ronin.
Written by Kang-Chien Chiu, Tin-Nam Chun, and Eddie Ling-Ching Fong, and directed by Eddie Ling-Ching Fong, An Amorous Women of Tang Dynasty is one of those romance action dramas that should not work as well as it does, but clearly strong writing and direction help make it much more than expected. There are themes here that as still important today and some that are a bit dated. To see a woman’s search for peace and freedom for herself while still wondering about life and what she should be doing for herself and for society is an evergreen set-up for any film really. While this film is mainly a drama with some romance, there is also some action to cut up the heavy scenes and to make the film one that should appeal to more people. There is something here for almost everyone watching (except children, some of the themes and scenes at hand are a bit hard to explain).
The cast here is solid with Patricia Ha doing most of the heavily listing story-wise and emotion-wise. She great here, giving nuance and vulnerability along with strength and honor. She does her best to show the difficulties of being a woman in the Tang Dynasty era and how this can lead to where her character is going. She’s fantastic and fascinating to watch here. Alex Man shows up here as a character credited as Swordsman, giving a decent performance that adds interest to the film. Monica Lam rounds out the lead cast and gives a performance that balances out that of Alex Man, being the maid in the love triangle, giving her character and storyline a human quality that works great here. The supporting cast works well with a few doing better than the others of course and a couple just not doing great unfortunately.
The cinematography by Ardy Lam is beautiful at times, sorrowful at others, while giving the cast the room to work and breathe within their scenes. The framing is careful, the lighting is on point, and the film ends up looking fantastic still over 40 years later. The look of the film shows careful attention to details from the cinematography to the decors to the costumes. This period piece has some great works of art in its many scenes, showing that when hiring talented artists, the film gains immensely from it.
An Amorous Woman of the Tang Dynasty does well balancing drama, romance, and action, bringing just the right mix to the screen and having a solid lead cast do the heavily lifting while looking like it’s the easiest thing in the world. There is something to look at and discover in every scene even upon rewatch.
This new release from 88 Films looks great with a fantastic transfer to make the cinematography and all the work involved look its best. The sound is in 2.0 DTS Cantonese and it sounds good here. The newly translated English subtitles are easy to read and follow. Other extras here are a trailer a stills gallery, and collectors’ art cards. While these are ok, a bit more like other re-release companies do would be fantastic here.
Version 1.0.0