Yu Ta-fu chuan ji / Cherry Blossoms (1988)

In 1913, Yu Dafu goes from China to Japan to study. At that time, Japan is the nascent superpower of East Asia, while China, the "sick man of Asia", is in turmoil. Dafu is forced to confront the formidable combination of challenging schoolwork, foreign culture, and a racist populace during his time in Japan, and, along the way, struggles with becoming a man, emotionally and sexually. Towards the beginning of the film, he meets, while bathing nude in a hot spring, Lung-erh, and falls in love instantly. Although Yu Dafu is unable to locate her after their brief encounter, he eventually runs into her again after having taken up his studies in Nagoya. Then he meets Isao Okada, a modern samurai of sorts. Okada helps Dafu to literary fame, initially by introducing him to a respected Japanese poet, and later by publishing some of his poetry in the school journal. At this point, Lung-erh reappears. The two friends become rival suitors, and Lung-erh makes her choice known, Dafu. But, when Dafu tries to run away with Lung-erh, her father is knifed down by Japan's secret police. Only Okada can protect her, we and Dafu are told, so Dafu returns to China. Dafu later becomes China's foremost poet and author. He is still thinking of his two friends the moment a Japanese bullet kills him 30 years later.