Spring in a Small Town (1948)
(Xiao cheng zhi chun)
Country: CHI
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Mu Fei
Cast: Wei Li, Wei Wei, Yu Shi
Synopsis:
Returning to his home province after ten years as a military doctor, a young man discovers that his childhood friend has married his first love, who still nourishes an undying passion for him.
Review:
Full of repressed desire and dominated by a narrative that sets the personal fulfilment against dignity and honour, this pinnacle of Mu Fei's career was bound to be dismissed as bourgeois decadence by the soon-to-be ruling Party, and such was the case. The film that survives is somewhat crude technically, with a separately recorded soundtrack, and bears the scars of neglect, but boasts touching performances from its four principals, not least Wei Wei, whose somewhat Burmese physiognomy lend her character an additional sensual undertow. The ruined city wall on which so much of the action takes place is a significant emblem of the privileged lifestyle that is in the process of being swept away, and is visible in the drinking party that brings the personal drama to a head.
(Xiao cheng zhi chun)
Country: CHI
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Mu Fei
Cast: Wei Li, Wei Wei, Yu Shi
Synopsis:
Returning to his home province after ten years as a military doctor, a young man discovers that his childhood friend has married his first love, who still nourishes an undying passion for him.
Review:
Full of repressed desire and dominated by a narrative that sets the personal fulfilment against dignity and honour, this pinnacle of Mu Fei's career was bound to be dismissed as bourgeois decadence by the soon-to-be ruling Party, and such was the case. The film that survives is somewhat crude technically, with a separately recorded soundtrack, and bears the scars of neglect, but boasts touching performances from its four principals, not least Wei Wei, whose somewhat Burmese physiognomy lend her character an additional sensual undertow. The ruined city wall on which so much of the action takes place is a significant emblem of the privileged lifestyle that is in the process of being swept away, and is visible in the drinking party that brings the personal drama to a head.
(Xiao cheng zhi chun)
Country: CHI
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Mu Fei
Cast: Wei Li, Wei Wei, Yu Shi
Synopsis:
Returning to his home province after ten years as a military doctor, a young man discovers that his childhood friend has married his first love, who still nourishes an undying passion for him.
Review:
Full of repressed desire and dominated by a narrative that sets the personal fulfilment against dignity and honour, this pinnacle of Mu Fei's career was bound to be dismissed as bourgeois decadence by the soon-to-be ruling Party, and such was the case. The film that survives is somewhat crude technically, with a separately recorded soundtrack, and bears the scars of neglect, but boasts touching performances from its four principals, not least Wei Wei, whose somewhat Burmese physiognomy lend her character an additional sensual undertow. The ruined city wall on which so much of the action takes place is a significant emblem of the privileged lifestyle that is in the process of being swept away, and is visible in the drinking party that brings the personal drama to a head.