This is a bit of an obscure Taiwanese film by a director we’ve never heard of before, Stan Lai. This was a recommendation from our cinephile and I bet that was due to how much we both liked the Peter Greenaway films we’ve watched. It really was a play originally as unusual as the format is, and it seems that it’s still performed as such today. But it was so successful that this film adaptation was made, retaining the same director.

A theatre troupe arrives at a venue to perform final rehearsals. They are performing a drama named Secret Love set in the 1930s about two lovers who get to know each other in Shanghai. The woman leaves for home for the Chinese New Year and so the man promises to write her letters and await her return. However after the first scene they are interrupted by another troupe who have also booked the same venue and insist that they have a higher priority. The second group is performing a comedy called The Peach Blossom Spring set in ancient times and about a feuding couple with the wife having an affair with the landlord. In frustration, the husband leaves and finds himself in the magical Peach Blossom Spring where he finds peace. As the two troupes try to deal with the mix up, the first one takes over the stage again. So they keep alternating, getting in each other’s way with increasing frustration and confusion.

Contrary to my initial expectations, this is not actually a stage performance that is filmed but really a film about a fictional stage performance. The lighting and camera work is by Christopher Doyle and the film does rely on clever camera positioning to achieve dramatic effects that would be impossible in a plain stage performance. Each of the two different plays is entertaining enough by itself but the juxtaposition of the two has an electric effect. We don’t get to fully see the plays in their entirety but we see enough to get the gist of what happens. But we also get a behind the scenes look at how they make the magic work as the stage directors juggle props and background, all the while arguing with one another. This only enhances our appreciation of their craft at creating an illusion that audiences will believe on an ordinary wooden stage. For example, watching the three actors fool around in the comedy play let me realize how much they rely on timing and coordination to make it look funny from the audience’s perspective.

Thematically, mixing up the two plays lets us see how two different love stories play out in parallel. Secret Love is essentially about a romance that is killed in its infancy due to distance to the eternal regret of its male lead who never forgets it. At least one aspect of The Peach Blossom Spring is about how marriage itself kills romance eventually. Beyond that it’s also great so how very differently the two troupes perform with the drama group being obsessed with getting every subtle nuance of a character down perfectly with the comedy group is much more physical. I was even surprised by how lewd the comedy troupe gets. This allows the audience appreciate aspects of each play that would be less apparent if they were each presented on their own.

The result is utterly delightful and wonderfully creative. I’m somewhat mystified by the inclusion of an apparently crazy woman who wanders through the theatre looking for a man. Perhaps it’s meant to represent someone who takes showbusiness too seriously and fails to distinguish between acting and reality? In any case, I love that for both of the troupes, despite their frustrations, arguments and the intense emotions they display on stage, at the end of the day, it’s still just a job for them and they go home.