Midlife Sorrows

This film (drama)Also known as哀樂中年，is aMainland ChinaProducerwomen sex，At1949Released in year 。The dialogue language isMandarin Chinese，Current Douban rating9.3(For reference only)。

Shanghai in the 1920s or 30s. 　　Chen Shaochang (Shi Hui), who has been running a primary school for many years and serves as the principal, lost his wife early on and raised his two sons, Jianzhong and Jianping, and a daughter, Jianying, by himself. His eldest sister, who lives with him, advises him to remarry. Although he also has this intention, witnessing the mistreatment of his close friend's daughter, Liu Minhua, by her stepmother dampens his thoughts. Soon after, his friend passes away, and after saying goodbye to him, Minhua's stepmother relocates, leading to a separation of ten years. When they meet again, Minhua (Zhu Jiachun) has grown into an independent and capable new woman, and, unwilling to be controlled by her stepmother any longer, she asks Shaochang to help her find a job. She subsequently becomes Shaochang's colleague. 　　The grown-up Jianzhong (Han Fei) achieves his wish of becoming an employee at a bank. Gaining the manager's favor, he meets the manager's daughter, Feng Lijun (Li Huanqing), and quickly becomes her husband, ascending the social ladder. The Jianzhong couple believes that Shaochang's humble identity as a school principal is embarrassing to them, urging him to retire and live as an elder at home. Despite his unwillingness, Shaochang obeys. Minhua takes over his job. However, life at home is hard; each day stretches out as motionless as his broken old pocket watch. When he shares his feelings of boredom with his family, they either blame him for not enjoying his good fortune or are too busy with their own affairs to pay attention to him. His sense of loss grows daily, and conflicts with the Jianzhong couple increase. 　　On the Qingming Festival a year later, while paying respects to his deceased wife, Shaochang encounters Minhua, who has come to honor her mother. He reflects on how, in old age, one can only wait to die, while Minhua believes that he, in middle age, is in the prime of his career and encourages him to return to teaching. After he secretly follows Minhua's advice without Jianzhong's knowledge, the news leaks, and Jianzhong's attitude toward him becomes even colder, but he has made up his mind. "Heaven's will favors the hidden grass, the world's love favors the late sunshine." He later inadvertently discovers that he and Minhua have already developed feelings for each other, deciding to marry her, which enrages the Jianzhong couple.