Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing

No, it’s not about that song in Moulin Rouge. Fox Movie Channel was showing Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing the movie this weekend. It was made in the 1950’s but sets in 1940’s war torn Hong Kong. The movie is based on a book written by Han Suyin, an extrodinary Eurasian woman living in Chengdu, Sichuan during WW2. William Holden plays a war journalist who falls in love with an Eurasian doctor played by Jennifer Jones.

The story is the blueprint of all Danielle Steel novels. It’s the typical man falling in love a woman genre and make you want to roll your eyes and puke. But I was intrigued by the accuracy, cultural issues, and character history the movie dealt with. The story’s main setting is in Hong Kong (also many wonderful shots of the city), but it referenced several other smaller western cities in China and South East Asia. Jennifer Jones played a widowed, independent doctor living in Hong Kong during the Communist Revolution. She was dealing with the lose of her husband due to the war. Jennifer’s character emphasized her ethnicity, independence from love, and limited traditional family responsibilities. William Holden was working through marital problems and he was very open to talk about the mistakes he made in the marriage. She had to overcome social and family pressure that comes with interracial relationships. The movie’s fault was it was written from a woman’s romance fantasy’s point of view with the typical woman melting into the arms of a strong man nonsense.

It’s characters are a stark contrast to the women of Mad Men.