Director: John Curran
Writer: Ron Nyswaner (screenplay), W. Somerset Maugham (novel)
Leading Roles: Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Live Schreiber
Country: China, USA, Canada
Runtime: 125 minutes
Synopsis:
The year is 1925, and Kitty is an upper class socialite closing in on an age when a proper lady must find a husband. To remain unwed bekar much longer would be highly unbecoming, not to mention humiliating for her exceedingly socially conscious mother.
Bored with her privileged seçkin lifestyle anyway and yearning çok istemek for escape, Kitty accepts a proposal teklif of marriage from Dr. Walter Fane, a quiet, serious bacteriologist who moves the new couple to Shanghai.
In the strange city, the Fanes venture teşebbüs into British colonial society, where they are introduced to English Vice Consul Charles Townsend. While Walter dedicates adamak himself to his work and to his new wife, Kitty embarks girişmek on an adulterous eşini aldatan affair with Charlie.
After Walter learns of her indiscretion yersiz davranış, he accepts a job in a remote uzak village in China ravaged kırıp geçirmek by the deadly cholera epidemic. Seized by vengeance intikam, he forces a despondent morali bozuk Kitty to accompany him.
Walter and Kitty barely ancak speak to each other and, except for a cook and a Chinese soldier assigned to guard her, she is alone for long hours. After visiting an orphanage yetimhane run by a group of French nuns rahibe, Kitty volunteers her services, and she is assigned to work in the music room. She is surprised to learn from the Mother Superior that her husband loves children, especially babies, and in this setting she begins to see him in a new light as she learns what a selfless özverili and caring person he can be. When he sees her with the children, he in turn realizes she is not the shallow sığ, selfish person he thought her to be.
As Walter's anger and Kitty's unhappiness subside yatışmak, their marriage begins to blossom gelişmek. She soon learns she is pregnant, but is unsure who the father is. Walter - in love with Kitty again -assures temin etmek her it doesn't matter.
Just as the local cholera problem is coming under control,ailing rahatsız etmek refugees from elsewhere pour into the area, forcing Walter to set up a camp outside town. He contracts the disease and Kitty nurses bakmak him, but he dies,devastating mahvetmek her.
Five years later, while shopping with her young son Walter in London, Kitty meets Townsend by chance on the street. He suggests the two get together and asks young Walter his age, realising from the reply that he could be Walter's father. Kitty, however,rejects reddetmek his overtures teklif and walks away. When her son asks who Townsend is, she replies "No one important".