2003 İSTANBUL FİLM FESTİVALİ
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- DirectorSusanne BierStarsSonja RichterNikolaj Lie KaasMads MikkelsenA Dogme film about an engaged couple that is torn apart after the man is paralyzed in an accident, and the woman falls in love with the husband of the woman who caused the accident.
- DirectorDiego LermanStarsTatiana SaphirCarla CrespoVerónica HassanYoung naive girl Marcia learns about her sexuality. Marcia is kidnapped by two punk women, Mao and Veronica Hassan. They take her to a coast which Marcia had never seen before. Eventually three women get familiar to each other and end up at Lenin's Grandma's friend, Aunt Blanca's house as paying guest. There everybody discovers and rediscovers the relationships and affect each other.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsShahab EbrahimiFaegh MohamadiAllah-Morad RashtianDuring the war between Iran and Iraq, a group of Iranian Kurd musicians set off on an almost impossible mission. They will try to find Hanareh, a singer with a magic voice who crossed the border and may now be in danger in the Iraqi Kurdistan. As in his previous films, this Kurdish director is again focusing on the oppression of his people.
- DirectorValeriy TodorovskiyStarsOleg YankovskiySergey GarmashAndrey SmirnovHe thought he was in control of his own life. Then he lost his wife and thought it was the hardest hit he could handle. It was not.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsAdam SandlerEmily WatsonPhilip Seymour HoffmanSocially frustrated Barry Egan calls a phone-sex line to curb his loneliness. Little does he know it will land him in deep trouble and will jeopardize his burgeoning romance with the mysterious Lena.
- DirectorThomas VinterbergStarsJoaquin PhoenixClaire DanesSean PennTwo lovers attempt to save their relationship in a near-future world on the brink of cosmic collapse.
- DirectorPaul MorrisseyStarsJoe DallesandroSylvia MilesAndrea FeldmanSpoof of the casual sexual adventures of a one-time child actor in Hollywood. It also involves a bratty on-again, off-again lesbian character.
- DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsChoi Min-sikAhn Sung-kiYoo Ho-jeongIn a time of political and social unrest in nineteenth-century Korea, an uncouth, self-taught painter explores his natural talent amidst the repressive world around him.
- DirectorPaul SchraderStarsGreg KinnearWillem DafoeMaria BelloThe life of TV star Bob Crane and his strange friendship with electronics expert John Henry Carpenter.
- DirectorFrançois ArmanetStarsMathieu SimonetCécile CasselAurélien WiikSet in Paris during the 1960s, a group of stylish teenagers hang out at a club called the Drugstore.
- DirectorJacob BergerStarsGérard DepardieuGuillaume DepardieuSylvie TestudWhile the whole world thinks writer Léo Shepherd is dead, he is kidnapped by his son Paul.
- DirectorCristian MungiuStarsAlexandru PapadopolAnca AndroneSamuel TastetOccident is a bittersweet comedy that focuses on the growing tendency of Eastern European youth to migrate west. When the amicable Luci (Alexandru Papadopol) and his beautiful lover Sorina (Anca Androne) are evicted from their apartment, Sorina decides they must visit her father's grave and ask for a "sign". Seconds later, Luci is hit in the head by a bottle and taken to the hospital by a Frenchman. Despite her love for Luci, Sorina believes a life with security takes precedence over romance, and moves in with the good samaritan. Meanwhile, a jilted bride (Tania Popa) and her mother (Coca Bloos) enlist the help of of a private agency to find a proper husband for her, but the wealthy Italian man they select has more than a couple of undesirable traits. Later, Michaela's (Popa) father, a police captain, finds out that Luci's cousin is dead, prompting him to remember when the two boys fled from Romania by swimming across the Danube on an inflatable doll. The cousin had made it across, but Luci had been arrested and thrown into prison.
- DirectorRaymond DepardonStarsAli HamitBrahim JiddiWodji OuardougouAn epic about the resistance against the white colonists and the development of a young African hunter in the Sahara.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGreer GarsonWalter PidgeonTeresa WrightA British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.
- DirectorKaran JoharStarsShah Rukh KhanKajolAmitabh BachchanAfter marrying a poor woman, rich Rahul is disowned by his father and moves to London to build a new life. Years later, his now-grown younger brother Rohan embarks on a mission to bring Rahul back home and reunite the family.
- DirectorAlice NellisStarsIva JanzurováTheodora RemundováIgor BaresA dark and absurd road-movie comedy in which the grandmother fulfills a dream, the mother stops treating her daughters like kids, the daughters stop treating their husbands like idiots, and the father's ashes get spread all over the country. It's almost six months since he died and his ashes are still in grandma's cupboard. Everyone in the family seems to have grieved enough and each has his or her own new problems. Younger daughter, Zuzana is about to leave her husband Pavel for a slightly more successful painter of abstract pictures. Her sister, Ilona, mischievous little Leon's exhausted and pregnant mother, feels neglected by a husband who seems to enjoy referring to her as head-cheese. Their mother, Milada, feels more and more useless and constantly invades Ilona's household offering help and nearly driving her son-in-law crazy. And grandma silently dreams about returning to her hometown in Slovakia at least once before she dies. Thus it's probably no accident that she refuses to bury the ashes of her beloved son in the tiny Czech town where they all live. She merely keeps repeating that his last wish was to be buried in Slovakia where he was born.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonAfter two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
- DirectorTakeshi KitanoStarsMiho KannoHidetoshi NishijimaTatsuya MihashiThree stories of never-ending love.
- DirectorDani LevyStarsSebastian BlombergMaria SchraderEzra-Valentin LenzMarco and Melanie, a young married couple, are living a life of passion, with chaotic situations, and all the little frustrations of daily life. Their love for each other is like a beacon in the storm. But career pressure, burned toast and dirty laundry erode any feelings of tenderness, and they never seem to find enough time for their six-year-old son, Benny. Their world is about to fall apart when Melanie moves out, taking Benny with her. She files for divorce, and Marco makes a decision that will change all their lives. It is as if he has suddenly discovered his love of fatherhood.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharlton HestonJack HawkinsStephen BoydAfter a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
- DirectorTedi MoskovStarsMaya NovoselskaFilip TrifonovSamuel FinziThis is a story about a woman, but not completely a woman, because she is funny and plump, because she is a comedienne and being a female comedienne is very difficult work. During the whole time, the comedienne gets in the way of the woman and the woman # in the way of the comedienne. In fact, nothing in the life of this woman is 'completely'. She is an actress, but not completely. She is playing the role of her life, but not completely. In the end she dies, but not completely.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsWei Wei ZhaoQiong WuTao ZhaoTwo unemployed Chinese teenagers have trouble resisting the temptations of the Western world.
- DirectorAluizio AbranchesStarsAlexandre BorgesJúlia LemmertzRuth de SouzaThe torrid love affair between a 40-year-old man who lives isolated from world, in his small farm nearby São Paulo and a politically engaged 30-year-old journalist.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûShima IwashitaKeiji SadaAn aging widower arranges a marriage for his only daughter.
- DirectorLaurent BouhnikStarsAgnès JaouiMichel SerraultBérénice BejoSet in 1913, 1936 and 2001. When he returns to casino and sea-side resort of his early adolescence, Louis.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- DirectorAsli ÖzgeStarsFatih AlasDagmar GablerThomas Gerber
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsYun TangPeiqi LiuHong ChenA violin prodigy and his father travel to Beijing, where the father seeks the means to his son's success while the son struggles to accept the path laid before him.
- DirectorMika KaurismäkiStarsWalter AlfaiateCajuCastanhaA documentary about Brazil's music.
- DirectorBrian TilleyStarsShireen KadivarZackie Achmat is an HIV+ South African activist campaigning to make AIDS medications more widely available. As one aspect of his campaign the HIV-positive Achmat refuses to take the medications until they become available to everyone.
- DirectorAdela PeevaThe film is a funny, dramatic and tragicomic search for the truth about a Song. A Song that everybody in the Balkans claims it is theirs.A Song that appears as a love song, as a religious hymn and even as a song inciting for battle. An exciting journey around Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria. A film showing with a sense of humor some of the typical features of the character of the people on the Balkans, as for example their habit of appropriating all that is good and denying the others the right to possess the same qualities, the same songs, the same customs, the same temperament.
- DirectorHandan IpekçiStarsSükran GüngörDilan ErçetinFüsun DemirelThe paths of 75-year-old retired judge Rifat Bey and little Hejar, who was left with a relative because he lost all his relatives in the operation carried out in his village, cross paths in Istanbul.
- DirectorPavel LunginStarsVladimir MashkovMariya MironovaAndrey KraskoDuring the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGregory PeckJean SimmonsCarroll BakerA New England sea captain in the 1880s arrives at his fiancée's sprawling Texas ranch, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between two families over a valuable patch of land.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsMichel DuchaussoyCaroline CellierJean YanneA man asserts himself within the life of an actress he believes is somehow responsible for his son's death.
- DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsSissy SpacekPiper LaurieAmy IrvingCarrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsFrank SinatraLaurence HarveyJanet LeighAn American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
- DirectorAndré S. LabartheStarsClaude ChabrolJean Douchet
- DirectorPaul MorrisseyStarsJoe DallesandroHolly WoodlawnGeri MillerDuring the course of a day, a heroin addict overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool welfare by having his girlfriend fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.
- DirectorLukas MoodyssonStarsOksana AkinshinaArtyom BogucharskiyPavel PonomaryovSixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Russia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.
- DirectorBaltasar KormákurStarsGunnar EyjólfssonHilmir Snær GuðnasonHélène de FougerollesA rich father in a fisher village plans to take on the project of writing his life story. But first he has to take on his own family, and everybody wants something...
- DirectorKirby DickAmy ZieringStarsJacques DerridaMarguerite DerridaRené MajorDocumentary about French philosopher (and author of deconstructionism) Jacques Derrida, who sparked fierce debate throughout American academia.
- DirectorSanjay Leela BhansaliStarsShah Rukh KhanMadhuri DixitAishwarya Rai BachchanAfter his wealthy family prohibits him from marrying the woman he is in love with, Devdas Mukherjee's life spirals further and further out of control as he takes up alcohol and a life of vice to numb the pain.
- StarsTim Pigott-SmithWho are the men and women who bring bloody death to innocent civilians? Why do they do it? What are their methods? And how do they justify it?
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTatsuo SaitôTomio AokiMitsuko YoshikawaTwo young brothers throw a tantrum when they discover that their father isn't the most important man in his workplace.
- DirectorFabián BielinskyStarsRicardo DarínGastón PaulsGraciela TenenbaumTwo con artists try to swindle a stamp collector by selling him a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps (the "nine queens").
- DirectorEdward YangStarsTsung Sheng TangChang ChenLawrence KoWhen a well known businessman goes missing, owing $100m to Taipei's underworld, two hoods decide to follow his son, the leader of a youth gang. A small group of trendy foreigners gets caught up in the action.
- DirectorEoin MooreStarsAndreas SchmidtLaura TonkeThomas MorrisA man struggles with memories of his violent childhood.
- DirectorRobert SchwentkeStarsAugust DiehlChristian RedlNadeshda BrennickeTwo police detectives, a grizzled veteran and one fresh-faced rookie, hunt a ritualistic serial killer murdering people with tattoos and skinning them.
- DirectorWen-tang ChengStarsUmin BoyaLeon DaiLieh Lee
- DirectorZeki ÖktenStarsKemal SunalJale AylançErdal GülverThe story of a family man who has hardship as a musician.
- DirectorPablo TraperoStarsJorge RománMimí ArdúDarío LevyA young locksmith is forced to leave his home and family to join the Buenos Aires police force.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChikage AwashimaRyô IkebeTeiji TakahashiA young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsSetsuko HaraChishû RyûChikage AwashimaA family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.
- DirectorDito TsintsadzeStarsSilvina BuchbauerLasha BakradzeTobias OertelErnest Hemingway wrote his Parisian stories on the table of a sidwalk café. Niko prefers to pen his Berlin tales on the counter of a funky bar behind the shark tank. What better place for a writer to pick up a girl? Along comes Sonja, who wants to know how the horny tale he's now working on will end. So she invites Niko to finish his erotic tale over a drink at her apartment! There's only one catch: Martin, her ex-husband, still hasn't moved out of the place.
- DirectorPaul MorrisseyStarsJoe DallesandroGeraldine SmithPatti D'ArbanvilleA man desperate for money and no income, turns prostitute and interplays with a variety of clients and hustlers.
- DirectorOssama MohammedStarsCaresse BasharZuhair AbdlulkarimFares Al-HelouFour families live together in an isolated house in the mountains, where conflicts erupt between the generations.
- DirectorVicko RuicStarsVjekoslav JankovicBarbara PrpicIvo GregurevicGrowing up on an isolated island off the coast of Croatia during the reign of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, young Serafin Skoko's formative years were as repressive as they were lonely. His father Joseph - the island's lighthouse keeper - ruled his household with an iron hand while making little effort to conceal his affair with his son's nanny Magda. His mother Marija was his only solace from the island's isolation and his father's tirades until her tragic and unexplained death. Years pass and Serafin has become an enlisted officer in the Empire's army, as well as the lover of a particularly noxious young woman named Tonka. As this relationship threatens to bankrupt him due to Tonka's lavish spending habits, Serafin checks into a mental institution faking mental illness so that his honor and army position may remain intact. However, Serafin's deception becomes truth as he experiences a long overdue breakdown - which leads to his unexpected salvation at the hands of intriguing hospital laundry attendant Sofia.
- DirectorJames LongleyStarsMohammed HejaziFocuses on 13-year-old Mohammed Hejazi, a second-grade dropout the filmmaker encountered at the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian children often gather to throw stones.
- DirectorNorman JewisonStarsSidney PoitierRod SteigerWarren OatesA black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûSetsuko HaraYumeji TsukiokaSeveral people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsMarkku PeltolaKati OutinenAnnikki TähtiM arrives in Helsinki only to be viciously attacked by thugs and pronounced dead by medics. He revives but with no memory of his past or his identity. He rebuilds his life from scratch, but the past inevitably catches up with him.
- DirectorYusuf KurçenliStarsAytaç ArmanMelike DemiragRojda DemirerLetters written but not sent over the years.
- DirectorElisabeth RygaardStarsBora AkkasGürol GüngörMazlum Çimen
- DirectorDanny PangOxide Chun PangStarsAngelica LeeChutcha RujinanonLawrence ChouA blind girl gets a cornea transplant so that she will be able to see again. She gets more than she bargained for upon realizing she can also see ghosts.
- DirectorEstela BravoDepicts the plight of the detainees and the human rights abuses they suffered after the 1980 Mariel Boatlift. Includes criticism by U.S. officials of U.S. policies.
- DirectorJohn SmihulaStarsSanford BishopNoam ChomskyEduardo GaleanoA feature length documentary by John H. Smihula
- DirectorAleksandr RogozhkinStarsAnni-Kristiina JuusoVille HaapasaloViktor BychkovIn World War II, a Finnish sniper is left chained to a rock by German soldiers, while a captain of the Red Army, en route to his court martial, is almost blown up by Russian planes. A Lapp woman gives shelter to both of them at her farm.
- DirectorZeki ÖktenStarsTarik AkanOkan BayülgenRutkay AzizThe ordinary lives of the two families will change with an unexpected development, and the secrets that emerge will change everyone's destiny.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKeiji SadaYoshiko KugaChishû RyûTwo boys begin a silence strike to press their parents into buying them a television set.
- DirectorVladimír MichálekStarsVlastimil BrodskýStella ZázvorkováStanislav ZindulkaFaced with a looming death, an aging prankster makes the most of his remaining life.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsMyrna LoyDana AndrewsFredric MarchThree World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
- DirectorSinisa DraginStarsDan ConduracheAna CionteaHoratiu MalaeleDumitru is a two-faceted killer: he kills animals and called a hunter, and kills people, and branded as an assassin. Dumitru is just out of prison, for the first time since the fall of communism. Even on the train taking him home, he is planning to return to his past practices as he is involved in a blood thirsty card game with some gypsies. The game turns out badly, and one of those making up the table is killed. He starts on a flight again, this time, bound for his home town, where he finds his wife pregnant by his own brother. Blind with a thirst for vengeance, Dumitru commits one more murder that unleashes a sequence of new crimes and makes him into a wanted serial killer. Life becomes a burden that is too heavy for Dumitru who decides to abbreviate his existence. However, he soon discovers he does not hold all power over himself. God has other plans for him and condemns to him to stay alive.
- DirectorGyörgy PálfiStarsFerenc BandiJózsefné RáczJózsef FarkasUsing almost no dialogue, the film follows a number of residents (both human and animal) of a small rural community in Hungary - an old man with hiccups, a shepherdess and her sheep, an old woman who may or may not be up to no good, some folk-singers at a wedding, etc. While most of the film is a series of vignettes, there is a sinister and often barely perceptible subplot involving murder.
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsNick NolteRalph FiennesNutsa KukhianidzeAn aging gambler on a losing streak attempts to rob a casino in Monte Carlo. But someone's already tipped off the cops before he even makes a move.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenTéa LeoniBob DorianA director is forced to work with his ex-wife, who left him for the boss of the studio bankrolling his new film. But the night before the first day of shooting, he develops a case of psychosomatic blindness.
- DirectorAhmet KüçükkayaliStarsAli BasarPelin BatuSemsi Inkaya
- DirectorBilge EbiriStarsKelly MillerScott JanesJonathan UffelmanA dark comedy about an office worker and his first day on the job. After a day of unusual occurrences, Gregg (with two G's) is accidentally locked in the office overnight.
- DirectorCédric KlapischStarsRomain DurisJudith GodrècheKelly ReillyA strait-laced French student moves into an apartment in Barcelona with a cast of six other characters from all over Europe. Together, they speak the international language of love and friendship.
- DirectorCarlos ReygadasStarsAlejandro FerretisMagdalena FloresYolanda VillaA painter from the big city goes to a remote canyon to commit suicide. To reach some calmness, he stays at the farmstead of Ascen, an old, religious woman. Although but a few words are spoken, love grows.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHenry FondaGeorge BrentIn 1850s Louisiana, a free-spirited Southern belle loses her fiancé due to her stubborn vanity and pride, and vows to win him back.
- DirectorPatricia CardosoStarsAmerica FerreraLupe OntiverosIngrid OliuIn East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.
- DirectorManijeh HekmatStarsRoya NonahaliRoya TeymourianPegah AhangaraniSpanning 18 years in an Iranian women's prison, this follows two women: the new prison warden, a tough as nails devout Muslim who has served in the army on the Iraqi front, and a young midwife, Mitra, who is serving her sentence for killing her mother's abusive husband. In the early years, Mitra is repeatedly punished as the warden tries to break her. This includes punishment for delivering a baby in the prison cell while all of the prison staff has taken shelter during an Iraqi bombing. The warden's attitude starts to change after 8 years, when Mitra tries to protect a new inmate from rape at the hands of her older cellmates. When the baby comes back in 1991 as a 17 year old delinquent, Sepideh, the warden respects Mitra enough to protect the girl.
- DirectorFarhan AkhtarStarsAamir KhanSaif Ali KhanAkshaye KhannaThree inseparable childhood friends are just out of college. Nothing comes between them - until they each fall in love, and their wildly different approaches to relationships creates tension.
- DirectorVerena S. FreytagStarsJulia MahneckeAdnan MaralAnne KasprikJohanna, a feisty 17-year-old German girl with dreams of becoming a fashion designer, discovers her biological father is Turkish. Without telling him of their relationship, she gets a job at his elegant restaurant and disaster follows.
- DirectorHideo NakataStarsHitomi KurokiRio KannoMirei OguchiA mother and her 6-year-old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.
- DirectorÖmer KavurStarsUgur PolatLale MansurÇetin TekindorThe story of a man who believes he's been presented with a new life where he witnesses his son's resurrection.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsStéphane AudranJean YanneAntonio PassaliaAn unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.
- DirectorDelphine GleizeStarsChiara MastroianniÁngela MolinaRaphaëlle MolinierAfter a bull dies in an arena, its remains are transported throughout Belgium, France, and Spain, where various characters cross its path.
- DirectorBill MorrisonStarsTsuru AokiJulia CalhounMargaret CullingtonA meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.
- DirectorEstela Bravo
- DirectorNouri BouzidStarsAhmed HafieneHind SabriOumayma Ben HafsiaThe 40-year-old Omrane is in charge to find maid placements in Tunis for the girls from his village. But the most rebel of the girls has escaped and he has to look for her to get her back in the right path. The girl refuses to lose the freedom she just obtained. For her part, the young Fedlah who was enthusiastic by going to town quickly discovers a world where childhood doesn't belong to.
- DirectorRebecca MillerStarsKyra SedgwickParker PoseyFairuza BalkThree women's escapes from their afflicted lives. Each struggles to flee from the men who confine their personal freedom.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsTerence StampSamantha EggarMona WashbourneA man kidnaps a woman and holds her hostage just for the pleasure of having her there.
- DirectorAndré HellerOthmar SchmidererStarsTraudl JungeDocumentary featuring interview footage with Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's personal secretaries during WWII.
- DirectorClaude ChabrolStarsNathalie BayeBenoît MagimelSuzanne FlonThree generations of a wealthy Bordeaux family are caught in the crossfire when Anne decides to run for mayor, thanks to a political pamphlet that revives an old murder scandal.
- DirectorZhuangzhuang TianStarsJingfan HuJun WuBai Qing XinThe eight-year marriage of Liyan and Yuwen has left them both unfulfilled and distant. A visitor arrives from Shanghai, a doctor who's an old school friend of Liyan's and, unbeknownst to her husband, Yuwen's childhood sweetheart.