Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody is a melodrama about marital discord with a light touch, where both partners explore other relationships.
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On the surface, Chinese writer-director Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody is about the romantic, if not necessarily sexual, relationship between a Chinese teacher, Yiu-Kwok (Jacky Chan), and and his adoring teenage student, Choy-Lam (Car-Yan Lam). But dig a little deeper, and it’s about the compromises we make, the way resentments can build up in long-term relationships, and the inability to ever fully know your partner. When his wife of twenty years, Man-Ching (Anita Mui), reconnects with the high school Chinese teacher she had an affair with as a student years ago, it stirs up long-buried feelings of resentment and inadequacy in Yiu-Kwok.
As a teenager, Yiu-Kwok had been pining after Man-Ching, who only had eyes for her teacher, who was also his favourite teacher and inspired Yiu-Kwok to follow in his footsteps, career-wise. Eventually, Yiu-Kwok got the girl, with whom he now shares two teenage sons, but the way he got there was a somewhat contentious point in their relationship.
An unconventional May-December sort-of romance in July Rhapsody
I don’t want to reveal the details because the way July Rhapsody unfolds them is part of the joy of watching it. But we sense, from the start, that Yiu-Kwok’s susceptibility to the young girl’s flattery is not disconnected from his relationship with his wife. The best films about adults transgressing and taking advantage of teenagers tend to be about how it’s not really about the young person for the adult. It’s about exploring, ignoring, or coping with something they’re going through, which is how they allow themselves to consciously or unconsciously manipulate the younger person.
Choy-Lam is precocious enough to challenge Yiu-Kwok but naive enough not to really be in control. By avoiding explicitly depicting an unsavoury sexual relationship, Hui focuses on the power dynamics, the tenderness between the pair, and the way Choy-Lam feels like a vehicle for Yiu-Kwok to reframe his feelings about his wife.
July Rhapsody was recently restored in 4K and will be screening in cinemas across North America. Find play dates in your city here.
More recommended restorations like Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody
More restorations of films by women:
Read my review of the Criterion restoration of Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter.
Read my review of the 4K restoration of Not a Pretty Picture.
More recent restorations:
Read my review of Shoeshine and The Lavendar Hill Mob in 4K.
Listen to our podcast on the 4K restoration of Mike Leigh’s Naked.
Listen to my interview with Oliver Schmitz on the 4K restoration of Mapantsula, a landmark Anti-Apartheid South African film made during Apartheid in South Africa.
