Shanghai, 2009. After four years of studying, a group of dance students are wished well by their teacher (Huang Lei) as they start rehearsals for their graduation performance. Meanwhile, five members of a 1936 Shanghai theatre troupe, lead by Master Liu (Hu Jun), are transported into the present to broaden their horizons. They start by forming a home cleaning service, Cleaning Babes, but soon get bored with both that and modern Shanghai. They’re joined by one of the dance students, Jixiang, and are told by the witch-like Natasha that, if each of them can attract two apprentices and all 18 people then perform together, the “time spell” under which they’re trapped in 2009 will be broken by the combined vibrations of their group performance. They descend on the academy to find apprentices, joining in (and bringing their own different skills to) the graduation performance. —filmbiz.asia
Stanley Kwan (simplified Chinese: 关锦鹏; traditional Chinese: 關錦鵬; Mandarin Pinyin: Guān Jǐnpéng; Jyutping: Kwan1 Kam2 Pang4; born October 9, 1957 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong Chinese film director and producer.
Kwan landed a job at the TVB after receiving a mass communications degree at Hong Kong Baptist College. Kwan’s first film was Women (1985), which starred Chow Yun-fat, and was a big box-office success.
Kwan’s films often deal sympathetically with the plight of women and their struggles with romantic affairs of the heart. Rouge (1987), Full Moon in New York (1989), Centre Stage (1992; aka Actress), a biopic on silent film star Ruan Lingyu and Everlasting Regret (2005), are all such typical Kwan films. Red Rose White Rose (1994) is an adaptation of an Eileen Chang novel.
Kwan came out as a gay man in 1996 in Yang ± Yin, his documentary looking at the history of Chinese-language film through… read more
