In 1960s China, French diplomat Rene Gallimard falls in love with opera singer Song Liling – but Song is not at all who Gallimard thinks.
Acting
John Lone's devastating duality—every glance performs two roles at once.
Direction
Cronenberg's coldest film, and somehow his most emotionally brutal.
Costume
Opera gowns that seduce, Mao suits that imprison—wardrobe as warfare.
Director
David Cronenberg
Jeremy Irons
René Gallimard
John Lone
Song Liling
Barbara Sukowa
Jeanne Gallimard
Annabel Leventon
Frau Baden
Shizuko Hoshi
Comrade Chin
Ian Richardson
Ambassador Toulon
Richard McMillan
Embassy Colleague
Vernon Dobtcheff
Agent Etancelin
David Hemblen
Intelligence Officer #1
Damir Andrei
Intelligence Officer #2
Tristram Jellinek
Defense Attorney
Philip McGough
Prosecution Attorney
David Neal
Judge
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on the 1988 play by David Henry Hwang, itself inspired by the true 1986 French diplomat spy case—though Hwang and Cronenberg both heighten the diplomat's willful ignorance to indict Western Orientalism.
Cronenberg called this his only 'romantic' film, which tells you everything about his psyche—the 'romance' is a parasitic infection of fantasy where both parties weaponize desire.
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