# Rouge (胭脂扣) (1987 film)
**Rouge** (胭脂扣) is a 1987 Hong Kong romantic fantasy drama directed by Stanley Kwan, adapted from Lilian Lee's (李碧华) novella of the same title, in which the ghost of a 1930s courtesan returns to 1980s Hong Kong to search for the lover who failed to join her in the afterlife.[5](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/rouge.html) It stars [Anita Mui](https://www.edgepedia.org/anita-mui) as Fleur and [Leslie Cheung](https://www.edgepedia.org/leslie-cheung) as Chan Chen-Pang, the Twelfth Master, with Alex Man and Emily Chu as the modern-day couple who help her.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rouge) The film won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress at the 8th Hong Kong Film Awards and three Golden Horse Awards, and it is widely regarded as a classic of Hong Kong cinema.[6](https://lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/rouge.htm) • [5](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/rouge.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / source | Stanley Kwan; adapted from Lilian Lee's novella *Rouge* (胭脂扣)[5](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/rouge.html) |
| Cast | Anita Mui (Fleur), Leslie Cheung (Chan Chen-Pang), Alex Man (Yuen), Emily Chu (Ah Chor)[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rouge) |
| Release | Taiwan 5 December 1987; Hong Kong 7 January 1988; Cantonese, 96 minutes[7](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/57421/info/) • [4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/rouge/) |
| Production | Golden Harvest and Golden Way Films; producer Jackie Chan, executive producer Leonard Ho[11](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/yanzhi-kou) |
| Hong Kong Film Awards | Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song at the 8th HKFA (1989)[6](https://lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/rouge.htm) |
| Golden Horse Awards | Best Leading Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093258/awards/) |
| Hong Kong box office | HK$17,476,414[12](https://www.leslie.org.cn/movie/film/1988-Rouge.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In the brothel district of 1930s Hong Kong, Fleur (Anita Mui) is a sought-after courtesan who falls in love with Chan Chen-Pang, the Twelfth Master (Leslie Cheung), heir to a wealthy family.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rouge) His family refuses to accept a courtesan as a daughter-in-law, and Chan is cast out; the two lovers, poor and without prospects, agree to a suicide pact and swallow opium so they can be reunited in the afterlife.[5](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/rouge.html) • [12](https://www.leslie.org.cn/movie/film/1988-Rouge.html)
Fifty years later, having waited in the afterworld without her lover ever arriving, Fleur returns to the world of the living.[5](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/rouge.html) She appears at a newspaper office in 1980s Hong Kong to place a missing-person advertisement, and admits to the journalists Yuen (Alex Man) and his girlfriend Ah Chor (Emily Chu) that she is a ghost.[12](https://www.leslie.org.cn/movie/film/1988-Rouge.html) • [3](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/rouge) With their help she searches the drastically altered city for traces of Chan, and the search ends in an ironic payoff: Chan did not die and has survived as a failed opera actor and film extra.[10](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/91139--rouge-widescreen/) • [6](https://lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/rouge.htm) Fleur returns his keepsake, the rouge necklace of the title, and departs to be reincarnated.[7](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/57421/info/)
## Production and cast
The film was produced by Golden Harvest and Golden Way Films, with [Jackie Chan](https://www.edgepedia.org/jackie-chan) as producer and Leonard Ho as executive producer, and was shot in color on 35mm.[11](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/yanzhi-kou) The screenplay is credited to Lilian Lee, the novel's author, together with Chiu Kang-chien (邱刚健).[8](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/5.-Exhibition-and-Screening/100_Must_See_Booklet.pdf) Bill Wong was the cinematographer, Michael Lai composed the music, and Cheung Yiu-chung edited.[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/rouge/)
**Casting.** According to Stanley Kwan's recollection, Anita Mui read the script and decided the Twelfth Master role belonged to Leslie Cheung; since Cheung was under contract to the [Cinema City](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinema-city) studio, she offered to make a film for Cinema City in exchange for his release to appear in *Rouge*.[13](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057014/newsletter84_t.pdf) Kwan and screenwriter Chiu also mined Mui's pop-cultural persona in developing Fleur, fusing the character's traits with her star quality.[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7826-10-things-i-learned-rouge) Mui was among the most successful female singers in 1980s Hong Kong, and Cheung had just come off a memorable turn in [John Woo](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-woo)'s *A Better Tomorrow* (1986).[14](https://eternalitytan.com/2022/09/12/rouge-1987/)
The film opened in Taiwan on 5 December 1987 and in Hong Kong on 7 January 1988, running in Hong Kong cinemas until 16 February and earning HK$17,476,414.[7](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/57421/info/) • [12](https://www.leslie.org.cn/movie/film/1988-Rouge.html)
## Awards
*Rouge* swept the 8th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1989, winning Best Picture, Best Director (Stanley Kwan), Best Actress (Anita Mui), Best Editing (Cheung Yiu-chung), Best Original Score (Lai Siu-tin), and Best Original Song for "Yin Ji Kau," performed by Mui; Leslie Cheung was nominated for Best Actor, and the screenplay, cinematography, and art direction also received nominations.[6](https://lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/rouge.htm) At the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan the film won Best Leading Actress for Mui, Best Cinematography for Bill Wong, and Best Art Direction, with a nomination for Best Feature Film.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093258/awards/) Mui also took Best Actress at the 1989 Asia-Pacific Film Festival.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093258/awards/) Internationally, the film won the Golden Montgolfiere at the 1988 Nantes Three Continents Festival and a Special Mention at the 1988 Torino International Festival of Young Cinema, and it was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1990 [Independent Spirit Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/independent-spirit-awards).[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/rouge/) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093258/awards/)
## Style and interpretation
Kwan renders the two eras in deliberately different registers: the 1930s in florid, opium-hazed images and the 1980s in muted tones, cutting between a satirical portrait of contemporary Hong Kong life and flashbacks to the decadent brothel district of Shek Tong Tsui.[3](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/rouge) • [15](https://www.timeout.com/movies/rouge) Critics have read the film's friction between eras as a measure of how love and the city itself have changed: an absolute romantic devotion in the past set against a looser, more pragmatic present, and a city eager to bury the traces of its own history.[16](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/04/10/quatre-films-pour-re-decouvrir-stanley-kwan-cineaste-des-temps-perdus_6227056_3246.html) The film inherits the tradition of *fengyue* literature depicting the brothels of old China, with Fleur as the Hong Kong Cantonese variation of the classic Shanghai sing-song girl.[11](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/yanzhi-kou) The critic Tony Rayns placed Fleur in "the long line of abused women in Chinese cinema," while noting that she is not a passive victim.[10](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/91139--rouge-widescreen/)
## Legacy
Both lead performers died in 2003, Mui from complications of cancer and Cheung by suicide, which has given the film a particular significance for audiences since then, given that its premise involves a suicide pact and a search for a lost lover.[14](https://eternalitytan.com/2022/09/12/rouge-1987/) The Hong Kong Film Archive included *Rouge* in its program of 100 must-see Hong Kong films.[8](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/5.-Exhibition-and-Screening/100_Must_See_Booklet.pdf) A new restoration screened at BAM in New York in October 2022 and the film streams on the Criterion Channel, introducing it to new audiences; Richard Brody of *The New Yorker* wrote that Kwan's view of the shock of history felt prescient in light of recent repressive changes in Hong Kong.[3](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/rouge) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 80% Tomatometer from five critics and an 86% audience score.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rouge)
## References
1. [Rouge (1987) - Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093258/awards/)
2. [Rouge, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rouge)
3. [Rouge, by Richard Brody, The New Yorker (October 14, 2022)](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/rouge)
4. [Rouge (Yinji Kau), Thessaloniki Film Festival](https://filmfestival.gr/en/films/rouge/)
5. [Rouge, Fortune Star Media](https://www.fortunestarentertainment.com/rouge.html)
6. [Rouge (1988), LoveHKFilm review by Calvin McMillin](https://lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/rouge.htm)
7. [胭脂扣 (1987) 详细资料, 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/57421/info/)
8. [100 Must-See Hong Kong Movies booklet, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/5.-Exhibition-and-Screening/100_Must_See_Booklet.pdf)
9. [10 Things I Learned: Rouge, by Aliza Ma, The Criterion Collection (June 21, 2022)](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7826-10-things-i-learned-rouge)
10. [Rouge [Widescreen], ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/91139--rouge-widescreen/)
11. [Yanzhi Kou (Rouge), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/yanzhi-kou)
12. [1988 (21) 胭脂扣 (Rouge), 张国荣歌影迷网](https://www.leslie.org.cn/movie/film/1988-Rouge.html)
13. [Newsletter 84, Hong Kong Film Archive (May 2018)](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057014/newsletter84_t.pdf)
14. [Rouge (1987), Eternality Tan review](https://eternalitytan.com/2022/09/12/rouge-1987/)
15. [Rouge, Time Out review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/rouge)
16. [Quatre films pour (re)découvrir Stanley Kwan, by Mathieu Macheret, Le Monde (April 10, 2024)](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/04/10/quatre-films-pour-re-decouvrir-stanley-kwan-cineaste-des-temps-perdus_6227056_3246.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 1980s › Released 1986 to 1989*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license