User reviews

"Spring in a Small Town" is a very simple movie--a simple premise, a small cast and it's all done in a very restrained manner. It's a definite example of minimalistic cinema and is worth your time.

The film is set in rural China--just a year before the Communist takeover. Liyan is sickly--with tuberculosis. However, his main problem is depression--he feels very sorry for himself and has no will to do anything. Most of the time, he just sits outside and broods. Not surprisingly, his wife (Yuwen) is not happy but is quite dutiful towards her husband. Into this sad family comes a surprise visit from one of Liyan's old friends who he hasn't seen in a decade. But it gets more complicated. The friend (Zhang) is shocked to see that Liyan's wife is his old lover!! Not surprisingly, he and Yuwen say nothing and at first, they keep their distance. Where does all this go? It probably doesn't go exactly where you expect....see it and find out for yourself.

My score of 8 is awfully high for such a simple film, but I was impressed that the movie was handled so simply and honestly. My only complaint, and you can't blame the filmmakers, is that the quality of the DVD print is pretty poor. My assumption is that Cinema Epoch did not have access to a better copy--though it would be nice to see this film restored to eliminate the scratches and clean everything up a bit.

Very interesting to get this glimpse into China in the short interval after WWII and before the communists won the Civil War. We see the fashions of the period pre-communism and a story decidedly not in keeping with social realism or rosy propaganda; instead, these characters have real angst and it's a human tale ala Madame Bovary. The devastation of the country is mirrored in the ruins of the town and in the illness of a man (Yu Shi) living with his increasingly estranged wife (Wei Wei). She's dutiful to him, but the pair are no longer intimate or even in love. Enter her old lover (Li Wei), a doctor who somehow slipped away from her a few years ago, and an illicit love triangle secretly begins simmering.

I loved the first half of the film, where the conflict and desire is told through glances and silences, and it wasn't clear what would happen. Complicating matters (in a good way) is the presence of a cheery 16-year-old sister who is also a possible love interest for the doctor. The film is a little creaky but director Fei Mu gives us some wonderful shots along the old city walls, the breeze fluttering through the grasses as the lovers stir each other's desires. The pace bogs down a little bit as the characters search for resolution to the struggle, with various contemplations of withdrawal, suicide, and even murder. The lovers also go through cycles which represents their torment, e.g. in a moment of passion the doctor whisking the woman off her feet and into his arms, and in the very next, putting her down, walking out the door and locking it. In all of the melodrama it seemed to me the story-telling wasn't as clean as it could have been, and I wasn't as swept up in the emotions of the ending as much as a result. It's interesting to think about the understated emotion and restraint here as it compares to 'In the Mood for Love' (2000) though, and the two films might make an interesting double feature.

After a long war with Japan, Chinese society in 1948 was ravaged by the destruction and the deaths of the seven straight years of the conflict. This movie perfectly depicts the depression of that era and the hopelessness in simple village-folk, while bringing a rather simplistic love triangle story-line at the forefront. Among the most important elements depicted are the internal monologues of Zhou Yuwen (Wei Wei), which narrate her life and bring a unique proto-feminist perspective within a society that was used to female subservience.

Film-making wise, noteworthy moments are the long walks along the ravaged (presumably by Japanese bombs) wall, as well as, the completely silent scenes that happen along the way, that add to the eeriness of the movie.

Produced in 1948 prior to the Communist takeover in China, Spring in a Small Town is a lyrical depiction of the intense psychological rivalry between two friends for the love of one woman. Directed by Fei Mu and based on a short story by Li Tianji, the film dramatizes the emotional entanglement of four people, conveying an intense eroticism that is powerful and haunting. Dai Liyan (Shi Yu), and his wife Zhou Yuwen, magnificently portrayed by the alluring Wei Wei, live in his old family house with Liyan's teenage sister, Dai Xiu (Zhang Hongmei) and the family servant Lao Huang (Cui Chaoming). Because of Liyan's tuberculosis, they are forced to sleep in separate rooms. Yuwen is a loyal and devoted wife but is bored and prefers to spend her time embroidering or going for solitary walks along the top of the crumbling city wall.

When Zhang Zhichen (Li Wei), a boyhood friend of Liyan who is now a doctor arrives from Shanghai, it is revealed that Yuwen was his childhood sweetheart when she was only sixteen. The tension becomes palpable as each character is forced to hide their true self and feelings are expressed only with glances, body language, mannerisms, and silence. Zhichen's arrival brings a spark of life to the moribund household and soon all are taking walks together, singing songs, and playing games. The relationship between Yuwen and Zhichen slowly becomes rekindled and is crystallized at Xiu's 16th birthday party when both have too much to drink. When Yuwen cuts her hand on broken glass after a struggle with Zhichen, however, a distressing event occurs that transforms everyone's life.

Spring in a Small Town has an elegance and intimacy that I found lacking in the remake last year by Tian Zhuanghuang. By depicting events from Yuwen's point of view and adding a poetic voiceover, Mu's film brings us much closer to the characters. Spring in a Small Town did not receive immediate critical acclaim when it was released and Fei Mu was labeled a "rightist" and left for Hong Kong, never to make another film. The film only began to find its audience when the China Film Archive made a new print in the early 80s. Now many Chinese critics consider it the greatest Chinese film ever made. I certainly would not argue with that.

"Spring in a Small Town" is a remarkable fusion of classic form and the convincingly real. It moves from its central character, Yuwen, who is isolated in a small town, and in an arranged marriage with an ill neurasthenic husband, Lyan; and moves too from a truly enduring acting job by Wei Wei as Yuwen.

The story revolves around memory: memory of love, and memory of a pre-war period of youthful promise. These moments of being are stirred to life by the visit of the husband's long estranged friend Zhang, who is now a city doctor. Zhang means renewed life and vigor at the desolate, war ruined estate of the noble Lyan, and love and passion to Yuwen, who happens to have been someone she once loved as a teen.

But Zhang's surprising appearance is more widening of vision than epiphanal. It's complicated by Yuwen's passionate desires and longings concentrated under the guise of romance, the doctor's scruples and detachment, her husband's illness, depression, and stoic passivity, and her sister-in-law's budding mutual relationship with Zhang. But there is no love triangle here, nor double love-triangle--something far more subtle is happening and it's happening in that whole arena suggestive of love and affection--one that extends into a range of human emotions, but is not romantic love itself.

Although there is clearly a patriarchal social world at work here, its oppressions are not exactly active in or bearing down on the two male and two female characters of this intimate drama. Each character has a kind of self-direction which comes from some inner sense of integrity, and acceptance of the life dealt them. They have deep emotions, but these are more felt than viewed. In other words, no one character dominates any other, so that each is free to call upon aspects of themselves which can result in self-determined responses and/or personal changes that are small but lasting adjustments.

The result is a world of stasis and intimacy which bears the physical-ness of the natural world. The characters seem to be as embodied as the stones of the ancient walls of the estate. They exist and move in a kind of equal world in which each senses the most minute emotion, movement, or thought in another--sometimes in soundless scenes. Honesty and simplicity arising from honoring the complexity of human-ness are what sets Fei Mu's film apart.

"Spring" is one of the most beautiful of all films because the things of beauty, sensuality, love, the natural world are more akin to hints than expressions. A breeze, spring sunshine, plants, the moon, water, fire are almost unnoticeably present, as are glimmering lights in an interior stillness. And all this bears more weight because of the period between war and change which seems to create a profounder environment. One in which the destruction of towns and persons is experienced in say the town's depopulation or the mild husband's bitterness and self-defeat. Yes, buildings and lives are equally vulnerable in Fei Mu's somewhat inconsolable world.

But "Spring" is as much about spring, as it is about the gravitas of war. Lyan's young sister Xiu has a youthful spontaneous presence which with all its trust, directness, driving sympathy pushes both her brother into re-connecting to memory, and her sister-in-law into and through the painful memory of Zhang's failure to be in love with her back then.

In the end, Yuwen may not be less alone, but she is more in sync with her husband's now awakened life and affection and more in touch with her own emotional life which was deeper than what she understood it to be. Dr. Zhang and Liyan do not answer her passions, but they have both contributed to her more certain grasp of them. There is a touch of sadness at end though, because the male social structures are still in place and Yuwen needs a fuller life--it's perhaps promised in her sister-in-laws embrace of all that must await both women.

Xiao Chen Zhi Chun is a great movie, not only in the year it was shot but also now. It's an art movie which is not outdated even in 21st century. The director maintained a good narrative skill and thus made the story so smooth!

The movie reminds me of the later French new wave movie: Francois Truffaut's "Femme d'a cote" which is of the similar topic.

If you are looking for a slice of life movie, look no further. A word of caution, however: this movie is a story, and a child of its time. There is no spectacular camera work, no epic soundtrack (or sound at all, for the most part), and certainly no special effects. Even the acting and dialogues are passable, at best. If you need any of these things to be immersed or even enjoy a movie, Spring in a Small Town is not for you.

There are four characters in the movie (and I mean four, there are no other supporting cast members or extras). The first two we are introduced are a couple, and they are "content". This is he best word to describe their situation, for they are not happy nor sad. You quickly realize that they have been frozen in time for years.

The conflict is created when an old friend (of both) comes back to town. This establishes the classic love triangle: the old friend has feelings for the wife, and she is torn between her own feelings towards him (or what she believes them to be) and those towards her husband.

There is little more to say about this movie without spoiling, except reiterate that this is a Chinese movie from the 40's. This is very much removed from the "factory assembled" plot lines that have plagued movies/books/video games/series for a long time.

If you were keeping track, the fourth character is the couple's caretaker, and he is a supporting character.

In the end, i still walk away with a lesson: no matter how much we think our life will stay the same, things will always happen. Whether they create change or not, is up to us.

This is a film about deep and unspoken human relationships.

Eventually they do become spoken, but is there a chance to change anything about the situation.

Originally made in Shanghai 1948 and quite free of propaganda the film introduces us to the Dai Family. There is still some weight about the history that surrounds the family. History usually has weight in Chinese literature and serious film.

A young married couple - Liyan, an invalid, and his wife Yuwen live in a once great family compound that is partially ruined.

A bright contrast is Liyan's young sister who cannot really remember the past of the family but accepts everything in quite a natural way. Her spirit is as bright as the other two are reserved.

Into this apparently stable world comes an unexpected visitor...

I ended up feeling quite sad - but definitely a superior film.

For Romance's sake, as a married man. The following two films are recommended.

1. Brief Encounter by David Lean (1945), UK

Well, when a woman goes to a railway station, something may happen. And it happened! How she longed to be there, in a little tavern waiting for the man of her dreams. But she was married... the man was a stranger to the fantasizing woman

2. Xiao Cheng Zhi Chun by Fei Mu (1948), China

Well, when a woman goes to the market to buy fish, grocery and medicine, passing through the ruins of an ancient wall in a small town, there is much to think about, about the melancholy of her life, her sick husband in self-pity and lack of future...Just when a jubilant young doctor arrived, something happened... the doctor was a high school honey of the fantasizing woman

In both movies, from great directors of UK and China, the passion vs restraint was so intense, yet in the end the intimate feelings had not developed into any physical contacts. That leaves you with a great after-taste, sniffing it intensely without biting it.

For decades it was almost impossible to see Chinese films here in the West so directors like Mu Fei meant little to us but if "Spring in a Small Town" had been the only film he'd made his place in cinematic history would still be assured. This small, simple masterpiece is one of the greatest love stories ever filmed and yet the lovers hardly ever touch and never kiss and sex never rears its head and yet theirs is a passion of the most devastating kind.

The plot is incredibly simple and there are only five characters. A young husband, ill with TB, lives with his unhappy wife, his younger sister and a male servant in a house damaged from eight years of war. One day an old childhood friend comes to visit and, as it turns out, he is, unbeknown to the husband, an old flame of the wife's. The visitor is embarrassed by the situation as he awakens feelings in the wife that she has long repressed.

There's an almost Chekovian sense of loss and regret to the picture that might have seemed rare in a western film of the period. It's beautifully acted, particularly by Wei Wei as the wife, and gorgeously photographed in black and white by Shengwei Li. It was remade in 2002 by Zhuangzhuang Tian and for once the remake didn't disgrace the original and shouldn't be missed either but this is the real deal. World cinema doesn't get much better.

Tian's remake is no good at all. I only click on his remake documentary to see Wei Wei, the original actress back in the classic 1948 film say a few words to the crew. We are going to meet Wei Wei this Sunday (28/3/2010) after the showing of Xiao Cheng Zhi Chun in the Hong Kong Film Archiev. Wei Wei is almost 90 years old in silver hair, her cameo appearance in Hong Kong films is always a surprise to her fans. In this year's Hong Kong Film Festival, a special program is dedicated to Fei Mu, director of this epic movie and Wei Wei's still shot from the movie is being seen all around in Hong Kong. My son, who turns 21 this year, is surprised Wei Wei was so beautiful then.

This is a nice little movie with a nice story, that plays the most important role in the entire movie.

It's a quite intriguing dramatic story, with also romance present in it. The story is being told slowly but this works out all too well for its build up. The characters are nice and portrayed nicely by its actors. Normally I'm not a too big fan of the Asian acting style but the acting in this movie was simply good.

Of course the movie is quite different in its approach and style from other genre movies, produced in the west. In a way this movie is more advanced already with its approach than the western movies made during the same era.

I only wished the movie its visual style would had been a bit better. For a movie that is considered a kind of an art-house movie this movie is certainly lacking in some well looking sequences. This was obviously a quite cheap movie to make and it got made quite generically. Not that this is a bad thing, it just prevent this movie from truly distinct itself and raising itself above the genre.

But oh well, this movie is all about its well constructed story and characters that are in it. In that regard this movie most certainly does not disappoint.

8/10

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Xiao cheng zhi chun / Spring In A Small Town (1948) : Brief Review -

A Cult Chinese Romance which certifies post-marriage relationship against pre-marriage love affair. Fei Mu's Spring In A Small Town is considered as a controversial classic in Chinese cinema. The film was rejected upon release for showing love-triangle set in countryside and because these things were shown after marriage in the film. The film is a love-triangle basically but it happens co-incidentally and keeps the fidelity intact. There are no kisses, sex scenes or intimate scenes which almost every Hollywood romance used that time and uses even today. That purity and legitimateness bounds together to make it looks very nice. A lonely housewife of sick and inadequate husband finds her monotonous life altered when her childhood sweetheart returns to town. Old memories flowers and hints towards an awakening of lost romance only to find all three of them in lots of queries. Unlike Hollywood romance, this one is immensely faithful while covering those feelings and it doesn't fail to express the emotions despite less dialogue. While most of the romance-drama films end up being predictable before last 2 or 3 minutes, this one has things to tell even in the last 10 seconds. Only when 'The End' appears on screen, you know what was it actually. The performance of leading three actors are superb. Wei Wei, Shi Yu and Li Wei have less dialogues compared to other feature films of Hollywood or any other film industry but still they talk so much in those silent moments with their expressions, eyes and movements. Maybe that's why this short 90 minutes runtime film looks slow but one has to understand what they are trying to say without speaking much. I don't know why this saw those controversies, i just loved whatever director Fei Mu had to show. Considering the local culture it's a Timeless Romance.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.

For whatever reason Chinese movies aren't given a whole lot of attention among the film community (at least in the United States). At the very least Chinese movies aren't nearly as talked about as say Japanese movies are. Admittedly I haven't seen that many (in fact I can name only two other mainland Chinese films other than this one. And that's a shame given that Spring in a Small Town is a good movie. It's set (unsurprisingly) in a small town, namely in the compound of the formerly prosperous Dai family. Reminders of World War 2 still loom and the Chinese Civil War remains a threat. The four characters Zhou Yuwen (Wei Wei), her husband Dai Liyan (Yu Shi), his sister Meimei (Hongmei Zhang), and butler Lao Huang (Chaoming Cui) all live uneventfully until a mutual friend Zhang Zhichen (Wei Li) shows up. It's very much a human driven story and it's very subtly done. There's nothing overly dramatic about it, it's all very calm and collected. It's a film I rarely hear about unless I seek it out and that's a shame because Spring in a Small Town is a good movie.

Frequently voted China's greatest film ever by Chinese critics, as well as Chinese film enthusiasts from the outside, and, frankly, I don't get it at all. What I saw was one of the most generic melodramas imaginable, blandly directed and acted, with a complete shrew for a protagonist. Wei Wei (don't laugh) is that shrew, a young married woman who has suffered alongside her tubercular husband (Yu Shi) for the past several years. It is post WWII, and they live with the husband's teenage sister (Hongmei Zhang) in a dilapidated home with not much money (the man had been wealthy when they married). Along comes the husband's old best friend (Wei Li), who also used to be the wife's boyfriend when they were teens. She considers running away from her husband with this man, while the husband pretty much remains oblivious, thinking he may engage his little sister to his friend. That's the set-up, and it doesn't go anywhere you wouldn't expect it to. I've actually seen the remake, directed by Blue Kite director Zhuangzhuang Tian. It runs a half hour longer, and is actually kind of dull, too, but at least it was pretty. This supposed classic is pretty intolerable.

In my mind, the film had a wonderful visual, such as stylish costumes, well footage countryside, realistic production designing done by Ning Che and Dexiong Zhu and Shengewe Li's decent monochrome cinematography. I did not like the camera fading into black because it looked dull to me. The moving image made the setting look natural: the damaged bricks,reflective lakes,smooth grass, you name it. Shengewe Li's Chiaroscuro was well skilled because it made me feel like I staring into a historical painting.

To add, I enjoyed listening to the clever sound effects because it made me feel engaged with Mu Fei directed piece of art. There were only two or three songs but it sounded beautiful like stage opera.

In addition, the storyline travelled through relationships and consequences after the Chinese civil war between Kaishek's Nationalists and Mao's Communist's. As an audience, it made me feel like I could moderately empathise with the characters who adapted from the horrific battle between those two parties.

I will give the motion picture a 7/10 for its creative piece that is based on a short story by Li Tiana.

This movie is an absolute masterpiece. You peer into the lives of ordinary people after the Japanese invasion of WWII and before the end of the Chinese Civil War with the communist victory in 1949. It is truly a product of its time and has deep symbolism and depicts the suffering of people through war and puts a deeply personal touch to everything. 11/10.

China in the middle of the last century was in a state of profound upheaval. The civil war, the aftermath of the Japanese occupation and economic hardships created harsh conditions for life and, especially, for art. In this context, Fei Mu, already a famous "second generation" director with a vibrant creative legacy, presented his latest film, "Spring in a Small Town." Although the film was met with coolness by its contemporaries, it eventually gained the status of a classic.

The plot unfolds in a small town near Shanghai, where a family lives, immersed in melancholy. The main characters are an impoverished nobleman, his life-weary wife Zhou Yuwen and her brother, who dreams of a more joyful life. An old friend, Zhang Zhicheng, bursts into their existence, and it is from this moment that the drama begins, where love, lost dreams and old customs intertwine in a joyless symphony.

The main theme of the film is love, but there are many deeper themes. "Spring in a Small Town" serves as the personification of a dying China, symbolizing not only personal tragedies, but also the loss of an entire era. Fei Mu managed to create an atmosphere of hopelessness and beauty, which makes the film especially touching. His cinematic language, filled with poetic images and slow, thoughtful shots, creates an amazing sense of time and space.

Fei Mu gives his characters emotional richness and individuality. Scenes taking place against the backdrop of a dilapidated estate become the site of important conversations and revelations. Zhou Yuwen, who voices the events, adds a note of tragedy, giving the narrative depth and a sense of loss.

Unfortunately, "Spring in a Small Town" was perceived as reactionary, and in 1951 it was banned, which affected the fate of its creator. Fei Mu died young, never to be recognized. The director and his work fell into temporary obscurity, as much of his filmography was forgotten or ignored on the mainland and dismissed by the left as evidence of right-wing ideologies. It was not until two decades later, after the collapse of the Cultural Revolution, that the film found its place in Chinese cinema.

Although the film may seem dated today, Spring in a Small Town leaves a strong aftertaste and provokes reflection on timeless human values. It is a film about love, loss, and change that, like all art, requires the viewer to be prepared and open to the perception of another culture and era. Ultimately, Spring remains not only a work of art, but also an important historical document that reflects the spirit of its time.

Spring in small town is average chinese film and that doesnt mean i hated it,i found some staff to like intresting leads and their relationship and history and some dialogue was written in a very unique way,also use of locations and chinese culture and lifestyle is presented well,but simply this film isnt one of best ,story in moments becomes for me to slow and some cliches concering relationships are also present here,and they werent able to invade them similiar to western counterparts,spring in small town is fine film for a chinese movie lovers and they can defienetly enjoy culture and everything else offered in displey

I became a filmbuff at the beginning of the '90s. One of the main reasons were the films of Zhang Yimou. Zhang Yimou was one of the directors of the so called fifth generation. A generation of directors that started making films after the Cultural revolution.

"Spring in a small town" (1948, Mu Fei) on the other hand is a film from the pre history of Chinese cinema. The film was made in a very turbulent time. The Second World War was just over and a year later the Chinese communists would take over power. The many ruined walls in the film symbolize the damage done by the war.

They also symbolize the broken marraige of the woman and the man. Right after their marriage the man became ill and after that the woman was more his nurse than his wife. In the opening scene the woman walks home after shopping and in a voice over tells us about her marriage. According to her she has not enough courage to die and her man has not enough courage to live.

This al changes when a childhood friend from the man and a childhood sweetheart from the woman comes along. The atmosphere becomes very sultry. See for example the scene in which the woman prepares the guest room while the guest walks around. The atmosphere becomes even more sultry when the 16 years old little sister of the man also takes an interest in the guest. The way the film portrays this atmosphere is really brilliant.

A love triangle (or even quadrangle) as described above is also very common in Western movies. Whats different in this movie is the fact that all characters feel an inner guilt. In this movie loyalty prevails above passion. I don't know if this is typical Chinese. I don't know if this is the philosophy of Confucius. I do know however that a Western director would have made a different choice.

By the way the guest is dressed in modern Western style suits while the man is dressed in traditional Chinese clothes. I already told that the man was ill, but the exact nature of his illness (somatic or psychological) is kept in doubt during the whole film. The man comes from a rich family fallen into poverty, so a psychological reason for his discomfort is possible. A possible interpretation of all this is that the guest is symbolizing the future while the man is symbolizing the past. With the communists taking over within a year after release of the film I don't know if this interpretation still holds in the new political situation.

I started this review with the directors from the fifth generation, and I will end with them. In 2002 Zhuang Zhuang Tian made a remake entitlled "Springtime in a small town" Compared with the 1948 original he used more medium (long) shots and less close ups. He also deleted the voice overs about the thoughts of the woman. I didn't see the 2002 film, but both decisions don't look very sensible to me. The first decision keeps us deprived of the emotions of the characters. The second decision makes the woman just one of the five characters and not the principal one.