For the first time since 1984's Love in a Fallen City, Ann Hui returns to a novel by the late Eileen Chang as the foundation for a film. 18 Springs charts another star-crossed romance in the Shanghai of the 1930s. Manzhen (Wu Chien-Lien) lost her father when she was 14; she has grown up supported by her elder sister (Anita Mui), mistress of a wealthy businessman (Ge You). Manzhen has been in love with the personable young Shen Shijun (Leon Lai) since they first met, but circumstances conspire to prevent them from being happy with each other. Most of the problems spring from questions of class and social standing: Manzhen is unacceptable as a bride in the eyes of Shijun's family because her sister has been a courtesan.

Revelling in her first-rate cast, splendid cinematography from Mark Lee and excellent design from Yank Wong and Bruce Yu, Hui translates the novel's ironies into a cinema of bold dramatic gestures and sweeping emotions. There's a particular pleasure in seeing the mixed Mainland-Taiwan-Hong Kong cast working so well together: players like Anita Mui and Ge You share the frame as if they'd been doing this for years. Tony Rayns