Eighteen Springs
A story of passion and fate set in Shanghai during the 1930s, based on an Eileen Chang novel. Manjing (Wu Chien-lien), a young woman from a once-prosperous family, works in a Shanghai factory and meets Shujun (Leon Lai), the son of affluent Nanjing merchants. Despite Shujun's worries about Manjing's family (her sister, Manlu (Anita Mui), works as a nightclub "hostess"), the two fall in love in stages. Manjing's apprehension about taking this step, Shujun's rejection of her family, and finally that family's baroquely conceived abuse and captivity of Shujun all disrupt the usual progression from engagement to marriage. Shujun and Manjing reunite after a long separation, only to discover that their pleasure is simply a memory, a nostalgic re-imagining of squandered opportunities and never-arrived-at understandings.
Released: 1997-09-12