Cinema
Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land
暗戀桃花源
Stan Lai · 1992
Synopsis
By mistake, two troupes have booked the same stage for their dress rehearsal, and each performs in two days. One rehearses Secret Love, the tragedy of a dying man in Taipei who thinks of the woman left behind in Shanghai when the civil war separated them. The other rehearses a costume farce drawn from La Source aux fleurs de pêcher, the classic tale of a land of happiness. The two plays fight over the stage, and a mysterious woman crosses the theatre.
Context
The play, premiered in 1986 by the Performance Workshop, grew out of improvisations led by Stan Lai with his actors; it was revived several times, performed around the world and officially staged in China in 2006, where it was already circulating through pirated copies. The 1992 film, with Brigitte Lin and actors from the original production, also bears the title Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring, and Taiwan submitted it to the Oscars.
Who it is for
A subtitled Mandarin-language film with two interwoven plots, whose principle becomes clear from the first scenes.
Prizes and reception
The Taipei Times calls it an award-winning film, and the play is regarded as a pillar of contemporary Chinese theatre.