Letter from an Unknown Woman (2004 film)

Letter from an Unknown Woman is a 2004 Chinese film written and directed by Xu Jinglei and is her second feature film as director after 2002s My Father and I. The film is an adaptation of Stefan Zweigs 1922 novella of the same name which was also adapted in 1948 by screenwriter Howard Koch. The film stars Xu and Jiang Wen as lovers during the 1930s and 1940s in Beijing. The film was produced by Asian Union Film amp Media.

Originally the films story was to have taken place in modern times, spanning the 1970s through the 1990s. Eventually Xu moved the films setting several decades back in time, to avoid dealing with social issues such as unmarried mothers and prostitution during the Cultural Revolution and beyond that would have aroused the suspicions of Chinese censors.Xu also decided to use Beijing as the primary setting over cities like Shanghai which she felt was overly colonial, Chongqing, and Nanjing both of which were too turbulent during the war to adequately serve as the setting for a love story. Additionally, Xu felt that Beijing would offer a distinct visual perspective that would have been absent in other Chinese cities. ........

Source: Wikipedia