This is a collaborative masterpiece of China and Japan by Director Chen Kaige, who produced Farewell My Concubine (1993): it is one of the best Chinese movies to people in Hong Kong, and was awarded Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm. It contains the true character of an eternal star, Leslie Cheung. This is a fantasy mystery as well as a growth story where Bai Juyi, a poet known to have lived in Chinese Tang Dynasty, and a Japanese monk Kukai tries to dig into and solve the truth of mysterious events between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei’s love story and death. Whether to remain in illusion like the talking cat, or whether to realize that ‘there is also truth in illusion’ and wake up is also a valid choice for the audience also enjoying illusion, the movie. The original is a Japanese novel ¡¸Samon Kukai¡¹, which is based on historical research. Despite being a historical movie, the visual arts indigenous to Chen Kaige is expanded through modern CG, impersonation, special effects, super-high camera, speedy camera walking, and various editing techniques to make it modern. As if the Tang dynasty is reproduced as it is, the movie unfolds a grandeur scale, a lively flow, and gorgeous actions. Sometani Shota, known for
Parasyte in Korea, acts as Kukai and shows offbeat acting. It would be another joy to compare this film with the buddy detective movies which has become a trend in Korea. (HONG Eun-hwa)