Underplayed Gems

Crows and Sparrows (1949)

Crows and Sparrows poster
Original title
烏鴉與麻雀
Directed by
Zheng Junli
Genre
drama film
Country
People's Republic of China
Runtime
1h 53m
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 9 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

In 1940s Shanghai, a corrupt party official tries to sell the apartment building where several tenants live. The tenants band together to stop him from throwing them out onto the street.

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What happens

Crows and Sparrows (simplified Chinese: 乌鸦与麻雀; traditional Chinese: 烏鴉與麻雀; pinyin: Wūyā yǔ Máquè) is a 1949 Chinese film made by the left-leaning Kunlun Studios on the eve of the Communist victory, directed by Zheng Junli and scripted by Chen Baichen. Notable for its extremely critical view of corrupt Nationalist bureaucrats, the film was made as Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing-based government was on the verge of collapse, and was not actually finished and released until after the Chinese Civil War had ended. The film takes place in Shanghai, and it revolves around a group of tenants struggling to prevent themselves from being thrown out onto the street due to a corrupt party official's attempts to sell their apartment building. The film was the winner of the 1957 Huabiao Film Awards for the “Outstanding Film” category, and starred Zhao Dan, Sun Daolin, Wu Yin and Shangguan Yunzhu in leading roles. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.