Ok. This movie was shown to me by my mother. She checked it out from the library. It starts out with an old man/woman (i forget) singing a Haiku about nature or something. Soon it cuts to the story. I remember there was a man who was going away to become a scholar, but he fell in love with this girl and wanted her before he left, so the mother had him put his initials on her skirt as a sign of their marriage. The next day he left for school. She grew more and more beautiful, and years go by. Soon the warlord or king or emperor wants her as a concubine, but she refuses because she is secretly married. So he starts to torture her till she agrees. Her husband soon passes his exam and returns and saves her somehow. Thats all I can remember! It ends back with the guy/girl singing the haiku