Hui is one of Hong Kong's most socially conscious filmmakers, having tackled issues ranging from Vietnamese boat people to 60s social movements and Alzheimer's disease.

The Postmodern Life can be construed as an attack on a country that once prided itself as a proletarian regime but is now casting aside its underclass as it morphs into an economic powerhouse.

'What I want to examine is how all these 'revolutionary cadres' position themselves now that communist ideals are disappearing,' says Hui.

That explains Ye's embrace of capitalism's 'greed is good' dictum ('Whoever makes me prosper is giving me the greatest love of all,' Ye says when a swindler, played by Chow Yun-fat, proposes a get-rich-quick scheme). She tells her nephew that it's Machiavellian cunning, rather than Maoist earnestness, that works best in navigating 21st-century Shanghainese life.

Such cynicism reveals much about the conundrum Hui faces as a filmmaker. The Postmodern Life is probably Hui's most personal film since 1990's Song of the Exile. The story of an angst-ridden daughter coming to terms with her mother - a Japanese woman who has married into a large household in post-war Anshan - Exile was based on Hui's relationship with her mother. This time round, the parallels are more symbolic than literal. Like Ye, Hui says she feels behind the times. 'I don't know what the youth of today think.'

This may partly explain Hui's waning popularity during the past few years - although she remains a favourite with critics and cinephiles. Summer Snow (1995) and July Rhapsody (2001), both affecting pieces about how middle-aged couples contending with the difficulties of everyday life, won awards and did well at the box office, but Ordinary Heroes (1999) and Jade Goddess of Mercy (2003) weren't well received.

Like the lapsed intellectual in The Postmodern Life, Hui sees pragmatism as a key to her survival in today's tougher economic climate. 'I now have this formula in mind when I think of my work,' she says. 'After one successful film I'm allowed two failures. But if I fail further, then I won't get to make a film again. I've been very spot-on about this.'

This fear of a hat-trick of flops has forced her to work against type - such as horror film Visible Secrets (2001). 'I knew what I was doing when I did that film,' says Hui. 'It was made when the industry was in the doldrums, and I thought horror was the easiest way to maximise the limited budget I could secure. It's not as if I wanted to do spooky - I just wanted to produce something that didn't lose money, so I could get to make another film.'

The same goes for Jade Goddess of Mercy (2004), an intense but ill-fated piece, starring Nicholas Tse Ting-fung and Vicki Zhao Wei. Although the film was written by Ivy Ho - who won an award for July Rhapsody - Hui took on the project only at the last minute, after a Hong Kong production she was supposed to work on fell through. It opened the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2004, but failed miserably when it was released.

The Postmodern Life will be Hui's attempt to stop the rot and the pressure is weighing heavily. 'It's not really a good thing,' Hui says of her pragmatism. 'It strips you of initiative. Sometimes hits come when you just do what you want without putting too much thought into it.

'That's probably why it's difficult for us old directors - people always measure your films against your previous work. If you don't deliver up to your standard, the investors and critics won't let you off the hook - to them it'd be like Jackie Chan not doing action scenes. But when you do the same thing as you're used to, they're like, 'Hey, there's nothing new here'.'

It's understandable why people have such expectations of Hui, whose career has spawned many classics - such as her thriller debut The Secret and the so-called Vietnam trilogy, comprising RTHK programme The Boy from Vietnam plus full-length features The Story of Woo Viet and Boat People.

After dabbling in martial arts fare such as Romance of the Sword and Princess Fragrance, Hui returned to top form with Song of the Exile and then Summer Snow, which won Josephine Siao Fong-fong a best actress title at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Born to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother in Anshan, Hui grew up in Hong Kong, and studied English literature at the University of Hong Kong. She then went to the London International Film School, before returning to Hong Kong to work for TVB and then RTHK, where she made a name with her docu-drama - several episodes in a series commissioned by the Independent Commission Against Corruption were withheld because of their depiction of sleaze at the top of the police force.

Despite sometimes feeling left behind, Hui says she'd rather look to the future. And the future lies in the north: Jade Goddess and The Postmodern Life will be followed by two more mainland-based productions and one Hong Kong project.

Hui says working with screenwriters such as Li Qiang is 'an eye-opening experience'. The mainland has become as inspiring and exciting as Hong Kong was when she began her career.

'People were saying how doing films like The Banquet or The Curse of the Golden Flower is wrong - but I think directors like Zhang Yimou are simply using their films to test the market, to discover what audiences like. It's like when people used me as a stick to beat the mainstream, saying we should all make films with meaning.

'But I think the mainstream and the arthouse can only exist alongside each other - if there's no mainstream cinema there are no actors, crew or funding for productions like mine.'

The Postmodern Life of My Aunt opens today