First I should mention that I enjoy watching films from Hong Kong. Even so, I didn't find out about Peking Opera Blues for some time. Sure I've seen another popular film by director Tsui Hark; the excellent Once Upon A Time In China. But the reason I didn't get to watch Peking Opera Blues earlier is because it's not easy to find. It's not readily available online or in video stores like other Hong Kong films, and it wasn't available at my local library. After that, having read reviews about how good the film is I decided to find it. It was available at the city library so I headed there and checked out the DVD. The opening of the film is reminiscent of the opening from Once Upon A Time In China. It contains shots of Peking Opera performers along with their accessories, and it's aided by a catchy song in Cantonese. I knew then that I was in for something special. The film is set in 1913 Beijing, during Yuan Shikai's presidency of the Republic of China. It depicts the adventures of three unlikely heroines: Tsao Wan (Brigitte Lin), a patriotic rebel who dresses as a man; Sheung Hung (Cherie Chung), a musician in search of a missing box of jewels; and Pat Neil (Sally Yeh), the daughter of a Peking Opera impresario. What the viewer should expect is that Peking Opera Blues is a slapstick comedy. The plot is simply there for the three women to get into comical and sometimes dangerous situations. However, the film also offers some fast and breathtaking fight scenes, along with several shootouts. These alone don't make an excellent film however. What sets Peking Opera Blues apart from other Hong Kong releases is its style and the three female leads. For once we get to see women generate humor and duke it out with the bad guys. This is the film's charm. Did I mention that the actresses are beautiful? I especially liked Sally Yeh in the role of Pat Neil. She's the most righteous of the three women. She also gets to perform in the opera during one important scene. American film director Quentin Tarantino once referred to Peking Opera Blues as "one of the craziest movies ever made" and "the best and a lot of fun." That statement pretty much sums it up. Those people who like Hong Kong cinema will like this film. Even those who don't usually watch foreign films may like it as well. Peking Opera Blues is a modern classic of Hong Kong cinema.

"Peking Opera Blues" gets a mediocre score mainly due to a heightened excitement at the end, but lacking a strong introduction. There was something exciting about this film within the final thirty minutes, but this film had to be watched during the day. Evening viewings made me sleepy, thus forcing to re-watch the beginning four to five times. This was a challenging film, with intense action and sexual innuendo, it was groundbreaking for the late 80s, but it just didn't have a voice. I don't think I could watch this film again. It was exciting, just not excitable. Remember - there was a cross-dressing woman randomly placed, jackets can block a barrage of bullets, and jewels do not a plot make.

Opinion seems pretty evenly divided on PEKING OPERA BLUES. One camp regards it as possibly the best film to come out of Hong Kong in the last twenty years, while the other camp thinks it's "stoopid".Oddly, I come down somewhere between the two.The first thing to understand is that POB is NOT a kung fu film. Yes, it has fighting in it. It has gunplay and it even has torture. But it is not a kung fu film. Mostly, it's a comedy adventure and those of us familiar with Hong Kong cinema will be well-aware that Hong Kong humour is, at best, an acquired taste, especially for us gwai-loh.The next thing to understand is that its importance lies in the way it completely subverts the traditional gender roles in Chinese society. Some of this lies on the surface - in the way that Cherie Chung's character tries to get some stage acting in but is chastised by her father for it (at this time in China, all female roles on stage were played by men). Some of this lies in the subtext - in the way that Brigitte Lin's character is completely in charge of both her female and her male companions. And some of it lies in between - in the way that Lin dresses as a man (a long and honorable tradition in Chinese storytelling), but a bit odd here as she's not actually *disguised* as a man.Add to this that all three female leads are headstrong women who know what they want (Brigitte Lin is just stronger, even, than the other two) and that the men are followers (Mark Cheng follows orders, then Brigitte, and Kwok Keung Cheung just follows Mark) and you can begin to see the impact this must have had when it came out in 1986 - years before we had Xena Warrior Princess or Veronica Mars.Overall, I think POB is a good movie, though probably not a great one. When I watch it (I have the dodgy DeltaMac DVD release with the eccentric subtitling - "There's a girl. Knock her up!") I just can't help feeling that this should have been much better than it was.Maybe if Tsui Hark were to do a remake today, POB would be the movie it always deserved to be ...

A strange, unique, but very accessable mix of hard action and outrageous comedy. Bigitte Lin is disguised as a man as usual. Great rooftop kungfu and shooting action. This is one of the best Hong Kong films ever made. Another difference from standard HK fare is that the three heroes are all women.