An assured return from Zhuangzhuang with his first film for ten years. Beautifully capturing the setting of a once-grand mansion in the aftermath of World War II, this is an intimate and graceful portrait of five people as they reconcile themselves to their lives and time.
In Springtime in a Small Town, directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang, a wife meets her former lover and flirts with the possibility of leaving her sick husband. Tian Zhuangzhu... more >
In Springtime in a Small Town, directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang, a wife meets her former lover and flirts with the possibility of leaving her sick husband. Tian Zhuangzhuang was one of the leading figures of the so-called 'Fifth Generation' until he was banned from making films after his 1993 film, 'The Blue Kite'. His new film, a remake of the 1946 drama, 'Spring in a Small Town' by director Fei Mu, explores no such explosive political issue but is explicitly conservative in its ethic.
Dai Liyan (Wu Jun) and his wife Yuwen (Hu Jingfan) live in a war-damaged house with Liyan's sister Xiu and their housekeeper Huang. The film beautifully captures the atmosphere of a once-grand mansion that has barely survived. The married couple sleep in separate rooms, their lives without intimacy or passion as a result of Liyan's undiagnosed illness that he believes to be tuberculosis, though Tian hints that it may be psychosomatic. When an old friend, a 30-year old doctor from Shanghai, Zhang Zhichen (Xin Baiqing), comes to visit and discovers that Liyan's wife was his childhood sweetheart, the visitor's passion is immediately re-ignited.
The ensuing rivalry of two very different men for the love of one woman is played out with subtlety and intelligence. Similar in theme and mood to Wong Kar-Wei's, 'In the Mood for Love', each character is forced to conceal their true feelings, perhaps out of social propriety or moral concerns. I felt the inner nobility of the characters and was moved by the unfulfilled longing of the two protagonists.
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