The Phantom Lover 1995

In 1940s-era China, Song Dan Ping Leslie Cheung is an ambitious theatre actor and owner who builds a magnificent playhouse to dazzle the city with his take on classics, notably Romeo and Juliet, along with other tragic love stories that pulse with longing and loss. His undeniable talent and sheer devotion draw crowds night after night, turning the theatre into a living dream where stagecraft, music, and emotion fuse into unforgettable performances.

That dream draws the eye of To Wan-Yin Jacklyn Wu Chien-Lien, the daughter of a corrupt and despotic official. From the moment she sneaks out at night to watch Dan Ping’s plays, their destinies begin to intertwine. He appears as Romeo, and she as a spectator who becomes a participant in a romance deemed taboo by their era. After each performance, they secretly rendezvous at the theatre, letting their love deepen as they imagine running away together to marry in a place where they might be free of constraint and propriety. This romance unfolds against a backdrop of a patriarchal society that frowns upon such unions, turning their whispers into a resolute bond that dares to defy convention.

Yet Wan-Yin’s future is controlled by her father, Master Zhao [Bao Fang], a figure whose power and influence loom large. He arranges a match for her with Zhao Jun [Roy Szeto Wai-Cheuk], a fiancé whose cruelty and sadistic temper are feared by many. The plot thickens as Wan-Yin’s beloved Dan Ping and Wan-Yin’s loyal ally Wan-Yin’s maid, Du Yunyan [Jacklyn Wu Chien-Lien], secretly help them flee, a daring escape that ends in violence: Wan-Yin’s maid suffers brutal punishment, and the lovers’ hopes are temporarily crushed. The elder Zhao’s grip tightens, and when the lovers’ plans are thwarted, Dan Ping is targeted by the man who would see him destroyed; his face is disfigured with burning acid, and a fire rips through the theatre, trapping many who hold the memory of his triumphs.

After the catastrophe, Wan-Yin is confined to her house under her father’s watch, and her husband’s cruelty continues in a cold, suffocating marriage. She endures an assault on her wedding night when it’s discovered she is not a virgin, an act that shatters her sense of self and leads to years of wandering alongside her disabled maid, severed from the world and losing touch with reality as her longing for Dan Ping persists.

Many years pass, and a new wave of aspiring performers arrives. A group of Beijing-based students comes to the long-silent theatre to pay homage to Dan Ping’s legacy and to experiment with reviving his signature style. Among them, Lan Die Liu Lin and Wei Qing Huang Lei offer fresh energy, while Xie Yan Xie Yan performs as a troupe member who anchors the show with his craft. They set up in the hall’s remnants, the outer structure still standing even as the interior bears the scars of past tragedy, and they attempt to honor the memory of a man who, in life, could command an audience with the slightest smile and a sudden gesture of heartbreak. The theatre becomes a space where memory and performance blur, and the line between past and present grows thin.

Song, scarred and reclusive, never fully reemerges as the confident impresario he once was. Instead, he becomes known to those who visit the building as the “Phantom Lover,” a shadowed figure who can still burn with passion but who avoids the public eye. When a talented student finally attempts to sing his most intimate serenade—an ode Song had once dedicated to Wan-Yin—the old magic flickers to life, and Song reluctantly steps forward, challenging the camp of aspiring performers with a display of intensity that reminds everyone of what the theatre once was.

As authorities close in on the group for reviving a legendary figure and reawakening a saga of love and vengeance, the truth behind the fire, the burns, and the fates of those tied to the theatre gradually spills out. One by one, those who helped conceal the truth are forced to confess, and the once-glorious theatre stands as evidence of a community’s moral reckoning.

In the closing moments, Song finds Wan-Yin again in a quiet, intimate moment—she is blind and physically broken from the years of pain, yet she recognizes him despite the scars that have reshaped his face. Their hands meet in a final, silent acknowledgement, and the two lovers depart the town together in a coach, a symbolic escape from the cruelty that fractured their lives. The epilogue reveals that Wan-Yin dies a year later, cut off by the injuries she survived, while Song never loves another woman in his lifetime, his heart anchored to a memory that can never be fully recaptured, a memory that will echo through the theatre as long as stories are told.