Eighteen Springs
A story of romance and fate set in 1930s Shanghai, based on an Eileen Chang novel. Manjing (Wu Chien-lien), a young woman from a wealthy family, works in a Shanghai factory where she meets Shujun (Leon Lai), the son of wealthy Nanjing merchants. Despite Shujun's reservations about Manjing's family (her sister, Manlu (Anita Mui), works as a nightclub "hostess"), they eventually fall in love. The expected progression from engagement to marriage is disrupted, first by Manjing's ambivalence about taking this step, then by Shujun's rejection of her family, and finally by that family's baroquely conceived abuse and enslavement of Shujun. Shujun and Manjing reunite after a long separation, only to realize that their happiness is only a memory, a nostalgic re-imagining of opportunities missed and understandings never reached.
Released: 1997-09-12