The Soong Sisters

Rating:
Summary: You have been warned. Buy at your own risk.
Review: First rate acting and beautifully filmed. Don't believe the garbage that this movie looks cheap.

The Soong sisters played a crucial role in modern Chinese history. Maggie Cheung, Vivian Wu, and Michelle Yeoh portray with deep emotion a close family driven apart by political turmoil.

Winston Chao as Sun Yat-Sen and Kuo Chiu Wu as Chiang Kai-Shek make the movie very convincing.

Rating:
Summary: Very Moving
Review: First rate acting and beautifully filmed. Don't believe the garbage that this movie looks cheap.

The Soong sisters played a crucial role in modern Chinese history. Maggie Cheung, Vivian Wu, and Michelle Yeoh portray with deep emotion a close family driven apart by political turmoil.

Winston Chao as Sun Yat-Sen and Kuo Chiu Wu as Chiang Kai-Shek make the movie very convincing.

Rating:
Summary: The historical value of the Soong Sisters
Review: I first saw this film for a Chinese history class. I loved it so much, I got a copy of my own. If it's historical accuracy you're after, this is a good reference material (and entertaining too), with the possible exception of some overdramatized scenes...but hey, that's showbiz. It's a beautifully captured story set in China, which starts at Sun Yat-Sen's rise in power in a nationalist China, to his death, to Chiang Kai-Shek's rise in power and feud with the communists, to the Japanese invasion, to the end of Chiang Kai-shek's reign, and how the Soong sisters play an active role in this series of events in history. It's a big boon to women's lib, having these powerful men backed by their wives. The Soong sisters are, more often than not, shoved behind the shadows of Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek, but this movie reveals the importance of the Soong family in helping them achieve. It's a fabulous story, and what contributes to its beauty is that it's real. English subtitles are present, but if you really want to get the full effect of the story, I think it's much better knowing Mandarin for this. If you're a history student or a person who likes movies, buy this. You won't be disappointed. And it's much beeter than Crouching Tiger, too, if you ask me. This movie is very rich in many ways. You'll just have to find out for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: A Dose of History Sumptuously Served - with reservations
Review: THE SOONG SISTERS is a visually stunning recounting of the turns of events that changed China from a land of Dynasties to a nation of multiple personalities: the Nationalist Party, the Revolutionists, and the Communist Party. As such it fills in many bits of political and social history that by and large have gone unnoticed by the West. Charlie Soong (having been educated in America) has three special daughters whom he loves so much that he sends them to America for schooling at Wellesley to prepare for what he envisions as a New China. The daughters return to China as young women, marry men who are destined to become important political leaders, and the changes the resulting schism of a Chinese family parallels the cultural transformation of one of the oldest civilizations on the planet. Director Mabel Cheung has a keen eye for vistas of Oriental splendor, capturing the young girls at play in gardens, marrying in elegantly beautiful ceremonies, joining the 'imported' western culture with the elegance of the Chinese culture in the arts, a fine sense of the seasons (though when it rains in China apparently one cannot hear a normal conversation!), and even the requisite battle scenes that of course must accompany this period of transition (internal battles as well as fighting the invading Japanese army). For the most part she draws vivid performances from Jiang Wan (a true mixture of East and West) as Charlie Soong, Michelle Yeoh, Vivian Wu and Maggie Cheung as the three Soong sisters, and Winston Chao as Sun Yat-Sen and Kuo Chiu Wa as Chiang Kai-Shek, two of their husbands. The drawbacks in this very long movie are the editing (scenes literally bounce off each other in a most distracting non-fusion), sound track (treacly Western sentimentalist gush coupled with the elegance of old Chinese music on ancient instruments), and the lack of passion in the relationships of the people. Perhaps this is her style: perhaps it is a way of avoiding commitment to any one of the political parties addressed. Given these reservations, if you are in the mood for eye candy and the wonder of history, try this film in the comfort of your home.

Rating:
Summary: You have been warned. Buy at your own risk.
Review: The story might have been good had we watched the whole thing. A previous reviewer was correct in saying that the quality of this video was poor. The subtitles are indeed very small and difficult to read.

This DVD comes off looking like a bootleg, and gives every indication of having been produced on a home PC (such as pixelated images that jump and stutter). The audio is often very garbled as well.

After a while, we couldn't take it anymore, and turned it off.

The copy we received had none of the extras you would expect with a DVD ... no actors' filmographies, no director's commentary, not even a scene selection option. In fact, there was no menu of any kind ... it just went straight into the movie ... another indication of it being a bootleg.

Since there is so little information about the Soong Family availible in video form, this was a great disappointment. If you really want to know about them, I recommend the book The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave instead.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been, would have been
Review: This could have been a better movie if the filmmaker was not overtly sentimental and nostalgic. By romanticizing the female characters and the dramatic events that surrounded them, the shifting personal values and murky lines between good and evil got lost. The characters and the story became one-dimensional. Maybe that's the best the filmmaker could do to squeeze everything she wanted to address in 120 minutes.

My opinion is that every major character in this movie deserves a feature length treatment of his/her own to fully present the conflicted emotions and the choices he/she made under the historical events during a very turbulent time in the Chinese history.

The actors are terrific in their craft. However, the character development is sacrificed due to the time and story line limitation. The portrayal of President Sun and Commander Chiang was accurate and appropriate. Among the sisters, Vivian Wu's youngest sister, after she became Mrs. Chiang, is a standout. It's a pity that the filmmaker can't spend more time on her earlier emotional and character development. Michelle Yeoh is very consistent through out the whole movie as a practical oldest sister prefers to live in a "real world". Maggie Cheung's middle sister is less sympathetic when she became too idealistic and blindly nationalistic. Miss Cheung's performance can seem too melodramatic at times.

Other than the acting, the production value is below par. The make-up is very amateur to say the least when the characters aged or in various state of health. The lighting was even worse. Maggie Cheung was 5 years older when she made the movie "In The Mood For Love" but in Soong Sisters she looked a lot less luminous (during which when she portrayed her character as a young woman). The lighting was simply unkind to the all the female characters in the movie. The make-up and lighting seem to be the problems in a lot of Chinese films. Very rarely the Chinese filmmakers pay close attention to lighting and make-up..

In whole the movie looks cheap and hastily made.

The DVD quality overall is a big disappointment. The picture quality is not clear, the sound quality is not crisp, and the subtitle is too small to read unless you are right in front of the TV screen.

I'd say unless you are 1. really into the Soong sisters' story, 2. interested in Chinese History through out both world wars, or 3. a fan of any of the actors in the movie, this movie is not a must see or must own.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: This is a excellent movie, without Michelle's back kick. Don't expect any action in this movie. You don't need it. This is a non-fiction story, about three sisters whose married with the three men who impacted greatly onto the modern Chinese history. Very good history lesson, described the confusing time in China througout 2 World Wars. You may want to review basic modern Chinese history before watching this movie. Sometimes it gets confusing. Maggie is fantastic, as well as Michelle. She can act wonderfully without flipping and kicking. This is a MUST SEE movie for Michelle's fun. It will open up your eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning non-fiction epic
Review: This stunning non-fiction epic is filled with cinematic splendour. Base on accounts of the social upheavals in various points and eras in Chinese history, it is filled with gorgeous cinematography, great score by Kitaro and great cast. Historically accurate if not, a few minor point may be incorrect, but as a whole, it shows you the big picture.

With some of the best stars there is from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Maggie Cheung, Michelle Khan and Vivian Wu portrayal as the three sister are excellent. But the most powerful in performance are from the men. Jiang Wen (outspoken Charlie Soong) also a favourite actor of mine, Winston Chou (charismatic Sun Yatsen) and Kuo Chiuwu (commanding Chiang Kaishek) are powerful and haunting.

Despite an 18 minute footage cut from the original, still its a great direction from Mabel Cheung. As a loyal fan of great movies from China, in likes of directors Yimou, Kaige, XieFei and HePing, Soong Sisters to me will be one of my personal favourite masterpiece, one of the few from Hong Kong.

Genghiz