Spring in a Small Town

DramaRomance

Already released · Theatrical Feb 1, 1948 (CN)

Programme: TIFF Classics
Year: 1948
Runtime: 98 min
Country: China
Language: Mandarin
TMDB rating: 7.2 (108 votes)
In cinemas: Feb 1, 1948 (CN)

A married couple living in a desolate small town in post-WWII China are paid a surprise visit by an old friend of the husband's.

From the TIFF programme

World Premiere of 4K restoration! Crowned the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, director Fei Mu’s poetic, romantic 1948 masterpiece observes a bored wife enlivened by a surprise visit from an old flame, whose presence threatens to upend the matrimonial home.

Yuwen (Wei Wei) has spent six of her eight married years nursing Liyan (Shi Yu) through vague, undefined illnesses, possibly compounded by a hypochondriac neurosis. Yuwen is an ideal wife — she also looks after her husband’s younger sister — but she is terribly bored. Into this stasis comes Liyan’s old friend Zhichen (Li Wei), now a doctor. It is revealed that he and Yuwen were once adolescent sweethearts. Urbane and vital, Zhichen awakens something in Yuwen. But Liyan’s dawning awareness of the romantic history between Yuwen and Zhichen creates tension, jarring the couple from their romantic fever dream.

Despite the time period — the film was released in 1948 and is set just prior — Yuwen is no passive figure, driving the film’s quiet current of desire. The evolution of her feelings is traced through a delicate visual style of long takes, careful framing, and suggestive lighting that communicates what the characters cannot.

Performances are understated and often strikingly modern, with Li Wei — who would go on to play the cruel dye-house owner in Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou decades later — a particular standout as Zhichen. When resignation finally settles over the characters, it lands softly, as each of their emotional sacrifices have been witnessed and honoured.

A study of repressed desire and duty, renowned director Wong Kar-wai has cited Spring in a Small Town as an inspiration for his film, In the Mood for Love. Frequently topping the lists of greatest Chinese films, Fei Mu’s masterpiece went against the grain upon its release, eschewing the melodramatic stylizing of the era’s popular, nationalist films. It is essential viewing in the canon of cinema of yearning.

ROBYN CITIZEN

Restored from the 35mm nitrate camera-original negatives, this 4K restoration by the China Film Archive honors the 120th anniversary of director Fei Mu’s birth. A highlight of this project was the discovery of a pre-mix music soundtrack negative, which was confirmed as part of the original 1948 theatrical soundtrack. The original balance and ambient depth were restored, and the audio was remastered into 5.1 surround sound.