Dir: Ann Hu. China-US. 2005. 89mins.

Set against the backdrop of the late 1940s Chinese Revolution, Beauty Remains is a grand, romantic saga where passion trumps politics and the lives of three little people amount to more than a hill of beans. A handsomely mounted production, it elegantly balances the operatic and the cerebral in a very satisfying dramatically charged yarn.

In China the film did well after a mid-February rollout, taking more than $2m. Beyond that it has decided international appeal on the arthouse circuit, with crossover potential in a handful of sophisticated markets that hanker for upscale and exotic fare in the tradition of Dr Zhivago. Chief selling points should be its strong craft and performance values, with festival play this autumn a certainty. Sony Pictures Classics are reported to be circling for a US deal.

Directed by Ann Hu (Shadow Magic; not to be confused with Ann Hui of As Time Goes By), the focus is on Fei (Zhou Xun), a girl approaching womanhood in the Northern City of Qingdao. The illegitimate child of a wealthy man and his maid, she is brought back into the family upon his death. Told by her half-sister Ying (Vivian Wu) that this was his dying request, she eventually learns that the will stipulates that her sibling only inherits the estate upon her return.

It also becomes clear that Ying plans to liquidate everything in advance of the Communist arrival and use the money to start a new life with her lover Huang (Wang Zhi Wen) abroad.

The script, by Americans Beth Schachter and Michael Eldridge and China’s Wang Bin, deftly maintains an ambiguity about the extent of Ying’s mercenary streak. There’s an obvious bond of affection between the two women but Fei’s vulnerability and need for family is not averse to employing blackmail and seduction to satisfy the void that existed in her personal life.

Huang, too, emerges as someone with a cultivated opportunism and the trio together comprise a landlocked Ship of Fools as the sound of combat and social change grows progressively louder on the soundtrack.

While unquestionably a culturally Chinese story, the film employs a significant number of Americans in key craft areas including cinematographer Scott Kevan and designer Carol Wells. However, there’s little indication that Beauty Remains has been westernised or homogenised, with the director embracing such visual stylists as Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wei as well as Visconti and Bertolucci. Kevan opts for diffused imagery that aptly suggests a bygone era and a tale fitfully recorded in memory. Plot details are filled in via narration by the character of Fei but the emotional struggles require no additional magnification.

The three principle performers devour meaty, nuanced roles with aplomb. Zhou particularly appears primed for wider recognition as a result of this role and Hu rises several notches in both her craft and storytelling from her debut effort.

One cannot help but feel the tug between the ironic and sincere that the title Beauty Remains implies. The specificity of the setting instils a potent dramatic context but ultimately the universality of the emotional terrain is so rich and textured that borders blur and a vibrant heart survives that should provide this international co-production with ample global access.