Synopsis
Not far from Shanghai, in a country town stands the palatial home of the Pang family. Old Master Pang is an addict who brings up his beautiful daughter Ruyi on opium smoke. Her older brother, Zhengda, is addicted as well, and then paralysed and effectively brain-dead. Zhongliang, Zhengda's brother-in-law, is a successful gigolo in Shanghai who seduces older married women and then blackmails them. When Older Master Pang dies, the clan elders make Ruyi take over the role as the head of the household. Zhongliang returns to the Pang family on the death of Old Master Pang, re-encounters Ruyi, and they are secretly attracted to each other. Wanting to seem sophisticated, she succumbs to Zhongliang's attempts to seduce her. But then an emotional maelstrom follows - for the angry, jealous and sexually frustrated sister (Zhengda's wife) is also part of the picture.
Scores
Popularity Percentile (Year)
16.0%
Box Office Percentile (Year)
35.2%
Critic Consensus
66.7% Fresh • 3 critic reviews
Critic reception is mixed, with 67% of 3 logged reviews marked Fresh. Across reviews, critics repeatedly emphasize psychological, character-driven, romantic. Common reservations focus on execution consistency, even when reviewers praise standout elements.
psychologicalcharacter-drivenromanticemotionalvisually strikingthought-provoking
Cast
| Cast | Year | Reported Salary | Inflation Adjusted | Notes |
|---|
| Leslie Cheung | 1997 | $14,000 | $27,000 | (est) |
| Gong Li | 1997 | $9,000 | $17,000 | (est) |
| Kevin Lin | 1997 | $6,000 | $13,000 | (est) |
| He Saifei | 1997 | $5,000 | $10,000 | (est) |
| David Wu | 1997 | $5,000 | $9,000 | (est) |
Aggregated Reviews
Rotten Tomatoes critic score62.0
RT critic review count13
Rotten Tomatoes audience score73.0
RT audience rating count1,000
IMDb rating6.6
IMDb votes2,113
Box Office ?
| Category | Year | Reported | Inflation Adjusted |
|---|
| Domestic | 1997 | $1,100,788 | $2,151,509 |
| International | 1997 | N/A | N/A |
| Worldwide | 1997 | $1,100,788 | $2,151,509 |
Earnings / Profitability
Estimated net revenues and net expenses for films based on reported and estimated numbers. This income statement should be considered most viable for the first 24 months after the inital movie's release (ie after most lucrative pay windows).
| Category | Year | Reported | Inflation Adjusted |
|---|
| Revenues |
| Theatrical Net Revenue | 1997 | $550,394 | $1,075,755 |
| Digital Rentals ? | 1997 | N/A | N/A |
| Digital Purchases ? | 1997 | N/A | N/A |
| Physical Rentals ? | 1997 | $8,086,000 | $15,804,226 |
| Physical Purchases ? | 1997 | $10,804,000 | $21,116,603 |
| TV & Streaming Revenue | 1997 | $440,315 | $860,604 |
| Total Revenues | 1997 | $19,880,709 | $38,857,187 |
| Expenses |
| Budget ? | 1997 | $1,211,000 (est) | $2,366,920 (est) |
| Print & Advertising (P&A) ? | 1997 | $881,000 (est) | $1,721,930 (est) |
| Participations | 1997 | $795,000 | $1,553,841 |
| Residuals ? | 1997 | $1,410,000 | $2,755,869 |
| Interest & Overhead | 1997 | $242,200 | $473,384 |
| Total Expenses | 1997 | $4,539,200 | $8,871,944 |
| Movie Net Profit or Loss | 1997 | $15,341,509 | $29,985,243 |
Similar Movies
| Poster | Movie | Year | Match | Overall | Est. Profit |
|---|
 | Your Name. | 2017 | Shared genres: 3 | 96.1 | $-703,056,942 |
 | Life Is Beautiful | 1998 | Shared genres: 3 | 95.2 | $112,743,538 |
 | The Handmaiden | 2016 | Shared genres: 3 | 87.7 | $13,304,548 |
 | Good Bye Lenin! | 2004 | Shared genres: 3 | 86.1 | $47,020,883 |
 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire | 2019 | Shared genres: 3 | 85.7 | $7,881,494 |
Tooltips
- Budget Estimated using Machine Learning
- Digital Rentals: PVOD, VOD, & On-Demand
- Marketing & distribution costs to release Movie in Theaters. Includes: Online & Offline Ads, Posters, Trailer Production, and physical or digital copies (formerly "prints") sent to cinemas.
- Net Digital Purchase Revenue
- Net Revenues for Physical Rentals: VHS, DVD, BluRay (when appropriate)
- Physical Purchases: VHS $10,635,000, DVD $169,000, BluRay $0
- Reported or Estimated Net Budget (after tax, product placements, & grants)
- Theatrical box office grosses split into Domestic, International, and Worldwide totals.
- Union-modeled residuals using SAG-AFTRA and WGA schedules as a simplified estimate proxy.
- reestimate_prior_estimate;covid_mult=1.00;peer_count=0;reg_box_pred=958601;reg_main_pred=1374828
Budget Tooltip
Reported or Estimated Net Budget (after tax, product placements, & grants)
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