Before
1949, gays played a visible role during New Year celebrations
in Shanghai. When Communist rule began, the gay contingent
was gunned down, as the new regime believed that same-sex
affection was a bourgeois aberration. Thus, release of the
government-sponsored Fleeing by Night (Ye Ben)
two years ago represented a revolution in Communist thinking.
The story provides no clue why thinking has changed, but notable
among the audience in the Hollywood debut of the film were
many Chinese straight couples. As the film begins, an elderly
Chinese man is walking in Central Park, New York; voiceovers
reveal his nostalgic thoughts about someone, a hint that unrequited
love will dominate the plot. The scene then shifts to pre-World
War II Tientsin, where an opera troupe has arrived in town.
Some members of the troupe are being quartered in a private
home of Mr. Wei, an opera aficionado who invited the opera
to the city. Soon, Hsu Shaodung (played by Lei Huang) arrives
at the airport from his studies in New York. He has been corresponding
during the time away with Wei's daughter Ing'er (played by
René Liu), and he has presumably returned to marry
her. Although he was supposed to study banking, in fact he
perfected his musical skills, doubtless at the Julliard School,
and is an accomplished cellist. In the process of getting
reacquainted, however, Ing'er takes him to the opera, where
he is so captivated by the voice of Lin Chung (played by Chao-te
Yi), the star of the troupe, that he is eager to meet him.
The success of the opera troupe, of course, depends on ticket
sales, and Huang Zilei (played by Li-jen Tai) ensures commercial
success by purchasing a large bloc of tickets to every performance
and also, as we learn later on, by buying the sexual favors
of Lin. But Shaodung, accompanied by Ing'er, soon go on outings
with Lin, who as an orphan sponsored by the troupe's manager
has never really had any friends or life of his own. Although
Shaodung has no sex with Lin, Huang reacts to the apparent
love triangle by whipping Lin and banning him from seeing
Shaodung. A somewhat Americanized Shaodung then urges Lin
to defy Huang, and one night the two flee from town into the
countryside until the car runs out of gas. Either attracted
to Shaodung or believing that Shaodung's aim was to have sex,
Lin makes an advance. But Shaodung rejects the overture, exits
from the car wearing a heavy coat, and smokes a cigarette
as snow falls. When Shaodung returns to the car, Lin has left
the car, but he did not have a coat. Discovered the next morning
outside the opera theater, Lin has contracted a serious case
of pneumonia, so the troupe's manager must find a replacement
for the show to go on. When Lin recovers, he storms the manager's
bedroom, where he is sleeping with another boy in the troupe,
and strangles him to death. Soon, Huang publicly albeit falsely
exposes Shaodung as Lin's lover. Disgraced, both Lin and Shaodung
must then depart, and Shaodung admits too late to Ing'er that
he intended to marry her. The war with Japan then enters the
story to disrupt life in Tientsin. Shaodung moves to New York,
where he realizes that he really loved Lin at first sight
and sound; filled with guilt and longing for Lin, he still
writes to Ing'er, who visits him briefly after the war. Meanwhile,
Huang tracks down Lin in a port city but falls into ill health,
whereupon Lin cares for him until his death. Thereafter, Lin
then boards a ship and ultimately lands in New York, where
he is arrested as an illegal alien in 1947 and dies while
still incarcerated in 1949, willing his possessions and remains
to his true love, Shaodung. The elderly gentleman featured
initially turns out to be Shaodung, who now reappears on the
screen, bringing flowers to the gravesite that he established
for Lin Chung's remains. The above summary, however, can barely
do justice to the depth and complexity of such a touching
story about unrequited love, which gays can now share with
straights, thanks to Fleeing By Night, directed
by Li-kong Hsu and Chi Yin. MH
I
want to comment on this film
