The Phantom Lover

The Phantom Lover is a 1995 Hong Kong film starring Leslie Cheung and Jacqueline Wu. It was directed by Ronny Yu and is a remake of the 1937 film Song at Midnight. The film itself is a loose adaptation of the classic Romeo and Juliet romance where love between two passionate lovers were ultimately doomed when parental opposition was the major obstacle. The main theme of the film was, however, a strong adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera. The films language is entirely in Mandarin.

His passionate and devoted performances, drew the attention of the beautiful daughter of a corrupt and despotic official named To WanYin Jacqueline Wu. To WanYin would sneak out of her house with her personal maid in the night to watch Dan Pings play he was acting as Romeo in Shakespeares playRomeo and Juliet. During the patriarchal era, romance between an actor considered useless and without a bright future and a rich mans daughter was definitely a taboo it was an irony that the couple were reenacting Romeo and Juliet in the movie. Hence after each performance, Dan Ping and WanYin would have a rendezvous at the theatre and their love deepened to the extent that they vowed to run away from the city and to get married elsewhere.However, WanYin was betrothed to a man whom she did not love and was reputed to be cruel and sadistic and this persuaded her to throw caution to the wind and run away from home with Song. It also turned out that WanYins father arranged the marriage as was the custom of China at that time to benefit himself as he sought to become allies with another official of great influence, whose friendship would help to improve his social standing. ........

Source: Wikipedia