Director: Stanley Kwan
Cast: Sammi Cheng, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Jun Hu, Daniel Wu

The official website (with English translation) is here ...
see
www.everlasting-regret.com/

The story basically revolves around the life of a woman in Shanghai from the forties to the eighties ... As the story is adapted from a well known novel, it really has the potential to be very excellent. However, I find the film not compelling enough (despite the potential to be so) but I commend the entire cast for their good performance ... In my humble opinion, there should be more dramatization, elaboration, and plot exploitation ...

What I like ...
-- I guess the entire cast ...
-- The costumes and set design and to some extent, the well known oldies ...

What could be better ...
-- A lot of the "background" info has to be inferred and deduced (or that the info are known at too late a stage in the film) such that the audience may not comprehend the motivation behind the events/behavior/actions ... Hence, the audience will not feel as emotional as they could have been ...
-- Likewise, the 4 romance that the female protagonist were involved in were not well exploited ... in other words, the film did not convince the audience on how they fell in love and/or out of love ... was she really in love, was she just seeking a shelter, or was she manipulative, ... what were the current situations/political situations/economical situations like, such that the men really had no choice but to leave ... the sad plight of the men were not adequately depicted (although they were just as pitiful) ... what would the men face if they had not leave, etc ... As a result, the audience would have to grapple with how and what to feel ...
-- Likewise, the relationship between the female and her daughter during the cultural revolution was not well explained ...
-- Finally, although the story was told in a linear fashion, the announcement on all the deaths were told too blatantly in a future time, such that initially, the audience might get confused with the time line ...

Conclusion:
I watch the film mainly for the performance of its entire cast. In terms of its plot, the potential to exploit the eventful turbulent times was not well exploited. In my humble opinion, the dramatization was played down way too much such that it became not compelling enough ...

Should you watch it? Hmmm ... watch and tell me what you think ...