Fleeing By Night

While fairly commonplace by Western standards, the subject of this Taiwanese film — co-produced by the ordinarily censorious Beijing Film Studio — is still fairly rare in Chinese films: An illicit love affair between two men. The film opens in contemporary New York City, then flashes back to 1930s China where, in the northern city of Tianjin, shy young Ying Er (Rene Liu) eagerly awaits the return of her betrothed, Hsu Shaodong (Lei Huang), a talented cellist who's been studying in the United States. Ying Er's father owns the Cloud Theater, a reputable Chinese opera house; Hsu Shaodong's father is a respected government official. The fathers agree that their...