LOVE EVERLASTING
(不了情)
dir. Sang Hu, 1947
China. 94 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.

MONDAY, MAY 6 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 11 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 24 – 5 PM

Yu Jiayin, a young female professional, moves to Shanghai where she’s hired as the in-house tutor to the daughter of a married businessman, Xia Zongyu, beginning an ill-fated love affair with him in the process. When her own boorish father shows up to try and exploit the situation for his own gain, coupled with the arrival of Zongyu’s sickly wife from the countryside, Jiayin must find a way to prevent an already comprising and unbearable situation from becoming even worse.

Loosely modeled after Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, the film is notable for being the first screenplay of author Eileen Chang’s to have been produced. Chang became a literary sensation in China in her twenties thanks to the back-to-back successes of her short story collection, Romances, and debut novel, Love in a Fallen City, both published in 1945. However, with that success came an elevated public profile, leading to controversy over her husband’s wartime affiliations during the period of Japanese occupation. Finding it increasingly difficult to find literary work in Shanghai, Chang turned to screenwriting for the newly-established Wenhua Film Company, penning four successful works for them within a few short years (three of which were directed by Sang Hu). Chang fled to Hong Kong in the early-1950s where she would later revive her career as a novelist and essayist, eventually publishing her widely celebrated, decades-in-the-making roman à clef, Lust, Caution.