July Rhapsody

July Rhapsody is a Hong Kong drama about Lam Yiu-kwok, a secondary school teacher approaching forty who feels stuck in a life that has not met his expectations. His friends have moved on to successful business careers while he earns a modest salary at a school, and his marriage to Chan Man-ching has grown strained. When her former lover re-enters the picture, and one of his students, Woo Choy-lam, makes her feelings for him clear, Lam finds himself drawn toward an affair that would upend what remains of his settled life.

Ann Hui directed the film from a screenplay by Ivy Ho, with Derek Yee Tung-Sing co-producing. Among the features Hui directed, it was the sixth after a run of films beginning with three 1978 television works and continuing through Boat People and Swordsman, and it came well before A Simple Life and later titles. Jacky Cheung leads as Lam, with Anita Mui as his wife and Karena Lam Kar-Yan as the student; the credited cast numbers thirty-five.

Released in March 2002, the film runs 103 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1/10 from roughly 1,300 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.5/10 from a much smaller pool of around 31 votes. The difference in vote volume suggests a modest but durable following rather than broad international attention.