The Beauty Remains (Mei ren yi jiu) (2007)

50% of critics liked it
(10 reviews)
73% of users liked it
(181 ratings)

A woman's tainted family history proves to be both a blessing and a curse in this drama from Chinese-American filmmaker Ann Hu. Fei (Zhou Xun) is a young woman who was born as a result of an extra-marital dalliance by her father, the wealthy Master Li. When Master Li dies while Fei is away at… More A woman's tainted family history proves to be both a blessing and a curse in this drama from Chinese-American filmmaker Ann Hu. Fei (Zhou Xun) is a young woman who was born as a result of an extra-marital dalliance by her father, the wealthy Master Li. When Master Li dies while Fei is away at school, she returns home to pay her respects. At the reading of his will, Fei learns that Li's final wishes have specified she must continue her education at the same school as Ying (Vivian Wu), her half-sister, and that the two girls must share a home. Fei is not happy with this new arrangement; Ying makes no secret of her dislike of Fei, while many of Fei's new classmates regard her as a nuevo riche who has rejected her proletarian roots. Fei meets Huang (Wang Zhiwen), Ying's rich but rebellious boyfriend, and finds herself becoming deeply infatuated with him; Ying, aware of her half-sister's feelings, insists that Huang set a date and marry her as soon as possible to bring their budding romance to an end. Mei Ren Yi Jiu (aka Beauty Remains) received its North American premiere at the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 27 min.
Directed By: Ann Hu
Written By: Beth Schacter, Michael Eldridge, Wang Bin
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Sep 21, 2007 Wide
Studio: Emerging Pictures

Critic Reviews

Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
The film plays like the work of a fifth-generation Chinese hack faking a lavish Hollywood saga on an indie budget.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
So beautifully filmed, it is especially sad that the script doesn't measure up.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Overwritten dialogue is matched by melodramatic performances.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
Ann Hu's Beauty Remains is distinguished by a ghostly, intimate atmosphere that will linger with you long after the plot has faded.
Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times
A delicate figurine of a movie, Beauty Remains is an account of a tragic love triangle set in China in 1948, just before the Communists won the civil war.
Frank Lovece, Film Journal International
The movie's tapestry and matrix of confused emotions is as breathtaking as the period fashions and as breathless as, well, Breathless.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A tepid and stilted Chinese soap opera about two sisters and their uneasy relationship.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Beautifully art directed, costumed and shot (by Scott Kevan, who brought the same to exotic haze to the interiors of Secretary), the whole thing feels like a living, breathing tableaux vivant from a China that is about to abruptly disappear.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Life is a stage in the film%u2014a feeling confirmed by the final shot, in which the characters arrange furniture and pose for the audience, waiting for a standing ovation that will never come.
Prairie Miller, WBAI Web Radio
A luminous, epic dreamscape, reimagining a decaying lost paradise from whose destructive core a buoyant redemptive unshackled political consciousness and redefined, aroused sisterhood rise from the ashes of repressive patriarchy.

Read all 10 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

No Featured Audience Ratings Found…

Cast

Xun Zhou
as Fei
Vivian Wu
as Ying
Zhiwen Wang
as Huang

Lisa Lu
as Woman Gambler
Zhu Man Fang
as Bai
Chang Shen
as Xiao Tian

See full cast

Now you can share movies with your friends on Facebook!

Discover movies your friends are watching
Keep track of what you want to see
Add your reviews to your Timeline

Get Started