July Rhapsody
(Nam yan sei sap)

With a script resembling a Hongkongese soap opera, the story of an honest literature professor, caught between one of his student’s burning fire and his grieving wife, July Rhapsody could have quickly shown its limits. But Jackie Cheung, Anita Mui and Karena Lam, making her debut here, weight this seemingly mundane plot with an authenticity that gives it its strength. After Eighteen Springs and especially Summer Snow, Hui once more references a season and through it a specific time and tone, turning a corner that will direct part of her work to come, in which her characters’ ages will become a subject of their own. JB