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Movies about a teacher hooking up with a student are almost always about forbidden sex. Titles like The English Teacher, The French Teacher, Dirty Teacher, and My Teacher My Obsession; IMDb lists dozens of films and TV episodes titled after Van Halen's single, "Hot for Teacher." Add to the mix that the teacher is married and the student is underage and you have a flat-out exploitation.
That dubious dynamic is at the heart of the Hong Kong film July Rhapsody. It handles the situation differently than in the West. Instead of seduction and torrid sex, the film’s approach is gracefully understated and lightly humorous. Hong Kong is different than you and me. July Rhapsody takes place at an elite private girls' school, which prepares students for a life of emotional curiosity. It's part of the curriculum.
Lam is a middle-aged professor of classic Chinese literature. He is a mild soul and an unlikely object of affection. Wu is his precocious student. She can name the exact moment she fell in love with him. A colleague warns Lam to be careful ("All her classmates know"), but an infatuation like this is accepted, even expected.
But that’s also not all July Rhapsody is about. Lam is in a midlife crisis, reconsidering the past and weighing the present. He’s led an ordinary life until now. He goes by the book, has raised a family, and insists on paying his own way, even when a wealthy friend offers to treat him. "Everybody leads his own life," he tells his wife Ching. A strict translation of the film's Chinese title is Man, 40, and that gets closer to the theme.
Jacky Cheung plays Lam with an affable John Garfield quality, a somewhat rugged exterior masking vulnerability. Unspoken emotions flit across his face, and every so often, he lets out a crazy giggle. As Wu, Karena Lam has a dewy charm, a young woman confident in her nascent sexual allure. She teases and flirts but is forthright about her desire. She informs her elder, "I always get what I want." When Lam drunkenly ruminates about the propriety of their affair, she says, "People must have forced you to self-reflect when you were young. As for me? I never doubt myself."
Anita Mui plays Ching, Lam’s wife. Her own trauma, revealed as the film goes on, counterbalances her husband's. Ms. Mui was a popular singer in Hong Kong until her untimely death in 2003 (from cancer at age 40). She's known in the US mostly for her roles in Jackie Chan's HK movies, like Drunken Master II and Rumble in the Bronx. This is her final film.
July Rhapsody is directed by Ana Hui, whose style is subtle and psychologically rich. Her movie has the gentle energy of, say, Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation. She keeps on a steady narrative path but allows herself some playful innuendo—students frolicking, spraying each other with Coca-Cola, followed by a portentous fade to black; a domestic discussion about gluing a faulty toilet: "It's all dried up!" A trip Lam and Ching plan on the Yangtze River becomes a metaphor for much more. Along with an impressive filmography, Ms. Hui is the recipient of the British MBE. She directs from Ivy Ho's literate script.
July Rhapsody was made in 2022, and its release is long overdue. It's a touching depiction of generations in their joy, passion, and imperfection.
_____________________________________________July Rhapsody. Directed by Anna Hui. From Cheng Cheng Films. 2023. On DVD, Blu-Ray and VOD. 103 minutes.