Forever Enthralled
Director: Chen Kaige
Genre: Biographical film, Romance Film, World cinema, Romantic drama, Drama
Year: 2008
Country: Hong Kong, China
Language: Standard Mandarin, Mandarin Chinese
Starring: Shao-Qun Yu , Wang Xueqi, Sun Hong-Lei, Masanobu Ando, Zhang Ziyi, Leon Lai, Da Ying, Yueming Pan, Shengsu Li
Forever Enthralled (simplified Chinese: 梅兰芳; traditional Chinese: 梅蘭芳; pinyin: Méi Lánfāng) is a Chinese biographical film directed by Chen Kaige; the film marks Chen's eleventh feature film as a director. Forever Enthralled follows the life of Mei Lanfang, one of China's premiere opera performers. It stars Leon Lai as Mei, Zhang Ziyi, Sun Honglei and Masanobu Ando.
Known during production as Mei Lanfang, the film's English title was changed in November 2008, shortly before its release, to Forever Enthralled.
The film was shown in competition at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival for the Golden Bear award.
Forever Enthralled was produced on a budget of $15 million (US) by the China Film Group and Taiwan's China Magnetics Corporation Company (CMC Company), which had previously helped fund John Woo's Red Cliff and Alexi Tan's Blood Brothers. Unlike Chen's previous film, The Promise, Chen is not re-teaming with his usual producers, Etchie Stroh and Moonstone Entertainment.
Just prior to the film's release in December 2008, Forever Enthralled producer, the China Film Group, ran into legal hurdles after it was sued by another production company, Milimeter. Milimeter claimed
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