Spring in a Small Town (1948)

Original title

小城之春

Directed by

Fei Mu

Genre

romantic drama film

Country

Republic of China

Runtime

1h 33m

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 108 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A married woman lives a quiet, stifling life with her distant husband in a bombed-out small town. Her calm is shattered when her former lover, an old classmate of her husband, pays an unexpected visit and stirs up buried feelings.

melancholicintimateslow-burnrestrainedtensebittersweetemotionally chargedminimalist

What happens

Spring in a Small Town is a 1948 black-and-white Chinese film, written by Li Tianji (Chinese: 李天濟; pinyin: Lǐ Tiānjì) and directed by Fei Mu, a director known for his empathetic portrayal of women. It was produced and funded by Wenhua Film Company, whose great financial deficit at the time led it to produce Spring in a Small Town on a smaller budget with a minimalist plot and setting. The film cast only five characters, and it focuses on the struggles of a husband and wife, and the ensuing turmoil when Zhang Zhichen, Liyan's former classmate and, ironically, Yuwen's former lover, pays an unplanned visit to the residence. The original print of the film is now kept in the China Film Archive. In 2005, at the Hong Kong Film Awards to mark a century of Chinese films, Spring in a Small Town was voted the best Chinese film ever made. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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