July Rhapsody

July Rhapsody unfurls as a series of stories, one nested within the other; it’s a tricky narrative structure, handled with such deft offhandedness that you almost forget it’s there.

Hui employs a delicate flashback structure that evokes the past and present concurrently. There’s also an element of national identity that makes this deceptively plain film a multilayered consideration of everyday life...

Ann Hui’s investment in her characters and their passions bleeds through every frame.

Hui's July Rhapsody subtly balances beauty and heart through its visuals and cast performances, gently playing on one's perspective of choosing love over duty, whether it is as a parent, teacher or partner.

Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody is a melodrama about marital discord with a light touch, where both partners explore other relationships.

Director Hui belongs among those rare filmmakers who captures lives so perfectly that the characters feel like relatives, neighbors, acquaintances.

It’s a film whose appeal is difficult to peg, but whose sum impact is quite lovely.

Revisiting July Rhapsody is a reminder that Ann Hui is one of the most empathetic and important filmmakers of the Hong Kong New Wave.

A worthy capstone to a great actress’s career.

Hui has proven herself in all kinds of genres (ghost stories, romantic melodramas, wuxia epics, etc). What unites her work is her deep and non-judgmental curiosity about human experience, viewed always from a level of dispassionate, academic reserve.