Letter from an Unknown Woman (2004 film)

Letter from an Unknown Woman
Traditional 一個陌生女人的來信
Simplified 一个陌生女人的来信
Mandarin Yīgè mòshēng nǚrén de láixìn
Directed by Xu Jinglei
Produced by Dong Ping
Xu Jinglei
Zhao Yijun
Ma Paobing
Written by Xu Jinglei
Based on Letter from an Unknown Woman
by Stefan Zweig
Starring Xu Jinglei
Jiang Wen
Lin Yuan
Sun Feihu
Su Xiaoming
Music by Osamu Kubota
Lin Hai
Cinematography Pin Bing Lee
Edited by Zhang Yifan
Distributed by Asian Union Film & Media
Release dates
  • September 20, 2004 (2004-09-20) (San Sebastián)
  • March 4, 2005 (2005-03-04) (China)
Running time
90 minutes
Country China
Language Mandarin

Letter from an Unknown Woman is a 2004 Chinese film written and directed by Xu Jinglei and is her second feature film as director after 2002's My Father and I. The film is an adaptation of Stefan Zweig's 1922 novella of the same name which was also adapted in 1948 by screenwriter Howard Koch. The film stars Xu and Jiang Wen as lovers during the 1930s and 1940s in Beijing. The film was produced by Asian Union Film & Media.[1]

Xu Jinglei won the Best Director award for the film at the 2004 San Sebastián International Film Festival.[2]

Script

Originally the film's story was to have taken place in modern times, spanning the 1970s through the 1990s.[3] Eventually Xu moved the film's setting several decades back in time, to avoid dealing with social issues such as unmarried mothers and prostitution during the Cultural Revolution and beyond that would have aroused the suspicions of Chinese censors.[3]

Xu also decided to use Beijing as the primary setting over cities like Shanghai (which she felt was overly colonial), Chongqing, and Nanjing (both of which were too turbulent during the war to adequately serve as the setting for a love story).[3] Additionally, Xu felt that Beijing would offer a distinct visual perspective that would have been absent in other Chinese cities.[3]

Story

In the winter of 1948, Beijing, a renowned writer (Jiang Wen) receives a letter from an unknown woman on his birthday. As he reads the letter, a female voiceover begins to recount a relationship he has forgotten. The woman, a Miss Jiang, tells of her first infatuation with the writer when she was in her early teens, when she was his neighbour at a siheyuan. When she moved back to Beijing years later as a student at the Peking Women's College, she had a brief liaison with him, after which she became pregnant. Days later, the writer had completely forgotten about her.

She gave birth to their son in Sichuan, during the war-torn years of the Second Sino-Japanese war. When she moved back to Beijing eight years later, after the war, she became a dance hostess to support her son. Although the two met again, the writer could not recognize her. They had one last liaison again. Though finding her familiar, the writer failed to pin down her identity. On the day after their son dies, she decides to write this letter to let him know of their existence.

Cast

References

  1. Young, Deborah (2004-10-07). "Letter from an Unknown Woman Review". Variety. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
  2. "Xu Jinglei claimed Best Director Title at Spain". China Daily. 2004-09-27. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ng, Yvonne; Uhde, Jan (2006-09-12). "Interview with Xu Jinglei". Kinema. Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved 2008-08-31.

External links

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