Jade Love

An affecting and well-acted period melodrama, based on a Chinese short story but suspiciously similar to The Go-Between, right down to a climactic glimpse of coitus. It's about a spoiled young brat who becomes the unwitting messenger between his adored nanny and her mysteriously reclusive 'brother'. The atmosphere is rather cloyingly literary, doubtless because the youngish director (rallying from two recent flops) was determined to prove his 'cultural' mettle. Still, accomplished in its backward-looking way.