“July Rhapsody” perfectly presents a Hong Kong teacher’s world

In 2002, Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s “July Rhapsody” received numerous nominations and awards. In a 4K restoration, this treasure is now receiving more grateful audiences and their praise. Set in an elite Hong Kong secondary school, the story focuses attentively on teacher Lam Yiu-kwok, forty years old, somewhat happily married for twenty years, and now quietly in turmoil.

The Chinese title, “Man 40” more accurately signals the mid-life crisis visited upon Lam. Though clearly an energetic, knowledgeable teacher of classic Chinese literature, his students ignore him throughout the opening classroom scenes. To be more accurate, all find him completely uninteresting except Choy-Lam enamored of Lam, confident of herself, and assertively pursuing him. Living in a crowded but nice apartment with his teenage stepson and his son, Lam has dinners with more financially successful colleagues and tutors for a wealthy family.

A delicately balanced life begins to unravel when wife Man-Ching decides to care for her ailing previous teacher, father of the older son. Memories via flashbacks fill in important moments. In nostalgic complement, narrated poetry punctuates events throughout the film, conveying a longing for beauty amidst recognition of its transience. For example, the picturesque Yangtze River fading away, an evocative poem called “Farewell to Yellow Crane Terrace,” and Chung Yueng Vignettes that celebrate of the dead.

Director Hui belongs among those rare filmmakers who captures lives so perfectly that the characters feel like relatives, neighbors, acquaintances. Their physical and psychological states emerge through authentic details: Lam’s cramped, crammed office; the sons’ claustrophobic bedroom; the family’s busy living area. With a documentary quality, through superb performances, “July Rhapsody” communicates a complex, recognizable world that provides insight into our own.  

With a new 4K restoration, in Cantonese with English subtitles, “July Rhapsody” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium one night only, Tuesday, September 10, at 7:30 that evenings. For more information, you may visit the film series website.