You don’t have to enjoy Beijing opera to enjoy “Forever Enthralled.” Chen Kaige’s biopic of one of its greatest stars, Mei Lanfang, makes its remote and receding world entirely accessible and colorful to contemporary audiences. Nonetheless, it does call for a bit of patience. The film’s main conceit is that its protagonist, a legend in the public eye, leads something of a timid, taciturn existence in private. However accurate this may be, it results in a story that itself ends up all too timid and plodding in parts. Thus despite similar trappings and themes as Chen’s “Farewell My Concubine” (1993), “Forever Enthralled,” while likable, isn’t quite the return to form for the director that many have been waiting for.

Chronicling Mei’s entire trajectory as a performer, the film begins with his early years in the industry, as he swiftly rises to surpass his famous teacher (played by Wang Xueqi). A later, older Mei, played by Leon Lai, is seen married, falling for dazzling opera star Meng Xiaodong (Zhang Ziyi), appearing in the United States, and abstaining from theater during the years of the Japanese occupation.

Again, the film revolves around the tension between Mei’s personas in and out of the spotlight—the flamboyant performer of women’s roles on stage, and the shy captive of external circumstances off it. Lai plays the latter with a blank slate face, almost as if his character (like Peter Sellers in his own self-description) became next to nothing without a role to inhabit. Unfortunately, the idea doesn’t quite lend itself to an engaging—let alone forever enthralling—drama. We also don’t know how much of a loss the film suffered from the removal of Gillian Chung’s part in it. Originally due to appear as a younger version of Mei’s wife, the Twins star had all her scenes cut following the Edison Chen sex-photo scandal. One can’t help but wonder if her presence would have made everything just a tad more titillating.

3 Stars by John Robertson.

Directed by Chen Kaige. Starring Leon Lai, Zhang Ziyi, Wang Xueqi, Sun Honglei. Category IIA. 147 minutes.