Saw this movie a few years ago (don't remember where I saw it though), so it must be made before 2003.
At the start, in Mainland China, a pair of lovers try to escape to HK. They are separated. Years later, they are both in HK. The man is now a big shot in a corporation or something, and they meet again, but they don't get together. At the same time, the woman sleeps with a Japanese art student or something. I believe the woman dies at the end.
It's probably a Mainland film.
Any idea?