In fact, this doesn't have much to do with literature's (in)famous Golden Lotus character. Rather, it's eventually recognisable as a famous episode from "the Water Margin", the one where Wu Song visits his merchant brother. However, the setting is modern, and events unfold through the adulterous wife's point of view. A disconcerting ennui pervades an otherwise conventional treatment.

[Reviewed by Iain Sinclair]