Review: July Rhapsody

Marital tensions bubble to the surface in July Rhapsody

Last night VIFF had a showing of July Rhapsody, or in Chinese 男人四十 "man, 40", a 2002 film by Ann Hui so we checked it out, despite the pouring rain.

Armed with a bag of popcorn we settled in to watch the movie and not being much of a Hong Kong movie watcher, it was my first time seeing Jacky Cheung Hok-yau on the big screen and a young one at that! 

He's Lam Yiu-kwok, a high school teacher passionate about Chinese literature but his students think it's a boring subject. However, there's one female pupil, Woo Choi-lam, played by then newcomer Karena Lam who has potential and a crush on him.

Lam is married to Anita Mui Yim-fong's character, Chan Man-ching, who were high school sweethearts. It transpires that their Chinese literature teacher has returned from Taiwan, elderly and frail, and Chan wants to help him in his last days. It's a source of tension between Lam and Chan, revealing the truth about the origins of their eldest of two sons.

Compared to his friends in business and the stock market, Lam makes a lowly salary but keen to prove he can afford to pay his share of a fancy dinner. 

The film reveals the mundane life Lam and his family live, reflective of most middle-class families in Hong Kong, living in cramped flats, shopping for food in the supermarket, but making enough to put food on the table and hoping for their children to have a slightly better future.

Perhaps it's because of this situation that Lam is drawn to Woo, and Lam is fantastic as this character, a confident teenage girl who has no fear in flirting with her teacher; he tries to play it straight with her, but she lures him in with her cockiness.

There's a lot of insinuation in July Rhapsody -- when the eldest son realises who his father is, there isn't much of a reaction except for crying in his pillow. What's his say in all of this? How does he feel about being led on that Lam is his biological father? He's a flat character that could have been further developed.

Meanwhile, a lot of poetry is recited in the film, many related to the Three Gorges and talking about how it will soon be flooded and how they should go visit it before that ominous deadline. It also reveals how many Hongkongers haven't been to China before, and as a result have no relationship with the motherland, post 1997 handover. 

Mui looks sad in the film most of the time -- it was her last one before she died of cervical cancer in 2003. She also looks particularly skinny... did she know at the time she was sick?

It's an interesting juxtaposition between her character who feels compelled to look after her teacher and former lover, while Woo is keen to start a business and travel to India and Kashmir to find goods to sell in her store. Is it a generational thing? Or there are opportunities if you take risks?

Perhaps there are more questions after watching July Rhapsody!

July Rhapsody

2002

Directed by Ann Hui

Jacky Cheung Hok-yau

Anita Mui Yim-fong

Karena Lam