205. Xiao Cheng Zhi Chun (Spring in a Small Town) (1948)

Directed By Fei Mu

Synopsis

A woman lives in a crumbling house with her sickly husband and his young sister, a friend of her husband comes to visit and he happens to be an old lover of the woman, and they still love each other, a depressive triangle starts with the woman torn between love and pity, the lover between love and friendship and the husband between selfishness and love.

Review

This is a very impressive film, and if you know any Chinese cinema you can tell how this has resounded deeply up until today, Wong Kar-Wai is a good example of someone who creates similar atmospheres and themes, particularly in In The Mood For Love.

The film immediately starts off being unique with the wistful voice over of the wife which leads us through the film, and then it is also interesting in the fact that there is really no antagonism, no villains and no heroes, all the conflict comes from the inescapable conditions of life, created by the passage of time and the particular life situations of each of the characters.

The whole atmosphere of the film is one of quiet despair and indecision nothing much happens throughout the film but the internal drama of each of the characters is so well developed that it carries you through to the end, where everything ends very much where you started but after the characters have gained some better knowledge of their motivations and needs.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Unfortunately, because of this apparent lack of "political" grounding, Spring in a Small Town was rejected by the Communists as rightist or reactionary, and was quickly forgotten by those on the mainland following the Communist victory in China in 1949. Beginning in the 1980s, however, the film had a resurgance in popularity after languishing in Communist archives for several decades. Today it is considered one of the classics of Chinese film, with the Hong Kong Film Awards Association naming it the greatest Chinese film ever made in 2005. In 2002, the film was remade by Tian Zhuangzhuang as Springtime in a Small Town.

10 minutes of the Remake, it all seems to be on youtube... but don't tell anyone: