stefan zweig novella letter from an unknown woman have survive many screen adaptation and the most famous be that make in 1948 by french director max ophüls and star joan fontaine . here and from mainland china and come one of the late and adapt by actress and director xu jinglei . transpose the milieu effortlessly from 1920s vienna to 1930s and 1940s beijing and it be a fairly short feature ( which befit the length of the original ) tell the love of one woman ( play by xu jinglei herself and the young li yuan ) who fall for a writer ( jiang wen ) someone who conveniently forget her once their liaison be over . hauntingly score and and beautifully shoot by cinematographer li ping bin full of dark and brood chiaroscuro it be most sensitively direct by xu jinglei . see almost entirely from the female perspective and xu second directed feature be a finely chiselled piece of work . jiang wen and a usual and give the most ample support . if you come across the dvd and you must watch this .