Love in A Fallen City (Qing cheng zhi lian)

The time is the late 1930s and a pending war with the Japanese forms a part of the epic setting for a fashionable and old-fashioned love affair between a once-wealthy widow and divorcée (Cora Miao) newly arrived in Hong Kong and a rich Chinese playboy educated at Cambridge. The epic treatment of their romance is provided by background music in the form of Chinese opera or contemporary love songs and dazzling, opulent settings along the seashore or in tourist spots. The gloss and glitter dominate but cannot hide the flaws in the plot or eliminate the moments of wooden acting.