TEMPTRESS MOON (48)

Directed by: Chen Kaige

Starring: Gong Li, Leslie Cheung

The Pitch: In 1920 Shanghai, a gangster returns to the house of his unhappy childhood with orders to seduce the girl he used to love.

Theo Sez: Gong Li, gangsters, Shanghai in the 20s, but a long way from the sleek power and delicate precision of SHANGHAI TRIAD ; more in common rather with this director's FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE - Gong Li, Leslie Cheung, a loose triangle between a woman and two men, a fevered visual style, and, unfortunately, a narrative bordering on incoherence. The teasing prologue is heart-stoppingly good, all jagged editing and fades to black, information withheld; but what works as a five-minute tease becomes tedious over two hours, with even Chen's delirious visuals contributing to the sense of murkiness - he favours hot images in inky-black surroundings, a striking but fairly opaque look. It does however make for terrific sexual tension, and, with its smouldering overbaked atmosphere - plus perhaps because everyone calls each other "Sister" and "Uncle", even when they're not related - the film often feels like a long-lost, if uncommonly slow-moving, Tennessee Williams play. It also feels like walking through sludge, but at least it's good-looking sludge.