She said she was 18 in both the voice over and when he asked her. Then, when they began the affair he said that she lied and that she was younger than she said. How old was she really supposed to be when she began the affair? Also, was the affair just a few months? In the end of the movie, the mother asked about her hat and she said she'd been wearing it for months.
shareI;m not sure about the hat thing, but in the book the girl was only 15 and that's how old Duras was when she began her affair with the older man.
"I thought that since he was from Scotland that he was stupid, but he was just the weakest link."
I saw the uncut version, maybe the R version is more confusing. As she is voicing over, she is essentially saying that at 18 she had aged, and the girl she is about to tell of is no longer visible in her face. "I have a destroyed face". In the uncut version, as she is crossing the Mekong, she says "Look at me. I am fifteen and a half years old". Later as she is riding in the car with the Chinaman, he inquires about what grade she is in school (11th) and then asks her age. She pauses, then says "I'm 17". Much like every 15 year old girl I ever knew, she bumped her age up a few years.
I'd guess the affair lasted through her school term.
If I remember correctly, she was 15 1/2 when she started the affair, and it lasted about 2 years, maybe a few months more. I read the book and I remember her saying something like that.
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That was longer than a heartbeat!
According to he book “The North China lover (L’Amant de la Chine du Nord)” she was 14 when the affair began, but she only confesses this to the Chinese man at the end, before that she tells him she is 15 and a half. She is 15 by the time they split, so it seems that the affair lasted for a few months.
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