Favorite scene?

When Chen Dieyi swirls in the spotlight.

My favorite scene was when Xiao Si betrays Dieyi and takes his place in the performance. It was so heartbreaking to see that Dieyi could no longer even perform with Xiaolou. When he took the headdress from Juxian and placed it on Xiaolou's head, I started crying. It was so sad.

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Okay, this was a tiny scene in comparison but I loved it.

My favorite was when Cheng Dieyi and Xiaolou, prior to the Japanese invasion, were getting dressed for rehearsal. There was a little moment between the two that was so sweet. It sorta alluded to them being more than just platonic friends...

Cheng takes Xiaolou about the waist and sort of tickles him. I thought that was so sweet. It let the audience in on the fact that they were actually in love, but it was unrequited...which made the story that much more tragic at the end.

I need Jesus like a starving lion needs a vegetarian platter

my favourit scene was at the end when Dieyi confuses his line and says "i am a man" when he realises he is actually a man that lived his like as a woman and kills himself. Sorry for my English I am Greek. I first saw this movie when i waw 13 and it surelly touched me then as it still does.

The same favourite as yours - the betrayal scene. The photo direction and red colour scheme of the scene was one of the most breathtaking I have ever seen in an Asian film, I wish I had watched this film in a theatre when it was first released.

Any scene where the Beijing Opera was represented!

Those scenes are just magic! The beautiful costumes, the strange singing ("strange" for westerners like me), the lyrics, the movements, the ecstatic reaction of the audience, etc.

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well I have others

I guess I found almost every scenes to be at least contain something beauty and meaningful, but what I think the most memorable is when Dieyi and Xiaolou teasing each other after a performance and ended up with Dieyi tipping his fingers on Xiaolou's waist from rear, and next thing they are staring at each other with a certain silentness as if each have some kind of though flowing in their mind. Implicitly Tempting....

I also have a certain feeling, kind of pity and and symphaty in the scene where Juxian bringing an umbrella to Xiaolou in the theater saying that it's about to rain. A very simple scene indeed, almost pass by meaningless to others, but I found it implicitly delivers a message of how much of Juxian care for her husband. It makes me really believe then that despite belonged to a brothel once but Juxian really married her husband in an account of love, look at how she stayed anguish with Xiaolou at hard times, and later when she was denounced by her husband which lead to her suicide, it's very touching and cliche. Damn it! Just writing it down here trigger my feeling of sorry for her right away.

And there really is a lot more hidden messages in each scene. Oh and yes, you got to watch it again and again to dig every detail you might miss.

Imdb Rating 7.8? I rarely comment on imdb rating, but this movie really deserves at least an 8.5++ if only just everyone(majority of foreign viewer) really understand the origin and could see the beauty within.