cinehunch
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
01
Why this pick
A lavish Chinese tragic romance shaped by theatrical emotion, doomed devotion and heightened visual stylisation; it carries the same yearning, period-gothic grandeur as Leslie Cheung’s Phantom Lover.
02
Why this pick
Its supernatural Chinese romance combines seductive melancholy, period spectacle and love tested by an uncanny presence, offering a polished modern counterpart to The Phantom Lover’s operatic mood.
03
Why this pick
Ronny Yu brings similarly feverish romantic intensity to this ravishing wuxia tragedy, where desire, betrayal and mythic imagery turn love into a grand, doomed performance.
04
Why this pick
A ghostly love story steeped in nostalgia and sorrow, moving between eras with the same exquisite melancholy, romantic idealism and haunting Leslie Cheung presence.
05
Why this pick
Less supernatural but equally immersed in performance and historical memory, Hou’s patient, beautiful drama finds poetry in theatre and lives shadowed by China and Taiwan’s turbulent past.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.
No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.
01 / THE STORY
The film is loosely based on real life "Phantom Lover" Dan Cheung, known as such due to the ghostlike (that is, not real) nature of the women he romances. The film is set in China in the 1940s. Song Dan Ping (Leslie Cheung) was an ambitious theatre actor and owner who built his dream magnificent playhouse from where he entertained and dazzled the theatre-loving populace with his adaptation of classics such as Romeo and Juliet and other tragic love stories.
Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
Song Danping
Yun Yan
Wei Qing
Lan Di
Zhao
Zhao Jum
Troupe performer
Agent in 1926