New Year's Eve. London. 1997.
A couple in love, Rapahel (Leon Lai) and Vivien (Shu Qi), are driving though the city at the brink of the new year. As the clock reaches 12, and the city explodes in a wealth of colors, the car crashes and the two lovers are killed. They die in each other's arms.
The next day in the US, a young man named David (Daniel Wu) is watching TV. As the news report the tragic death of this anonymous couple David looks at the screen in disbelief. The man in the wrecked car is his father, but the woman is not his mother!
He travels to Hong Kong to claim the body, where he meets a girl Susie (Nicola Cheung), who says that the woman killed in the crash is her mother. The two discover that their parents have been leading secret lives. We're not just talking an affair here. Raphael and Vivien had a house together and even a dog.
When David and Susie go through their parent's house, to clean up their thing and prepare for the funeral, they come across an old record player. There's already a record on the turntable, with the song "Try to remember":
Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain so yellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and a callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow... follow... follow...
As the tune creeps though the house we go back in time, to meet Raphael and Vivien before even they knew that they were destined to be together. A late night water fight on a college campus, between some boys and girls, bring together a young boy Raphael and a young girl Vivien. It's love at first sight.
But the separation between girls and boys make their love difficult. Still Raphael manages to woo and win over Vivien, however none of them are prepared for what life has in store for them. The violent 70's take their toll on the couple. During a demonstration Raphael is arrested and thrown in jail for 3 months and this marks the beginning of a slow deterioration of their relationship.
Meanwhile David and Susie, despite their initial disdain for each other, begin to warm up. Will their parents love bring them together, or will they suffer the same fate...?
David Bjerre