Springtime in a Small Town

The Chinese film Springtime in a Small Town is a stately, unwaveringly discreet movie, but one with more quiet resonance than many of its Western equivalents. It reminds us superficially of the films of Merchant-Ivory - it possesses the sense of tactful distance, the quality of not wanting to deal with any unseemly emotions, that characterizes such staid, painterly efforts as Howards End, A Room With a View and that classic of repressed-librarian-cinema, The Remains of the Day - but director Zhuangzhuang Tian has a greater talent for letting emotion slip in the backdoor than James Ivory, who is often lauded for his subtlety, but is not criticized enough for being a prudish old grandma. Zhuangzhuang's film involves a quartet of characters engaged in a slow, elegant emotional dance. The story takes place in the aftermath of WWII, when China is just starting to pick up the pieces after the devastation wrought on it by the Japanese. Sickly Dai Liyan (Jun Wu) lives with his dutiful-but-frustrated wife Yuwen (Jingfan Hu) and bubbly young sister Xiu (Si Si Lu) in a large, dilapidated house; Liyan's old friend Zhang Zhichen (Bai Qing Xin), a doctor and ex-resistance-fighter from Shanghai, drops in for a visit, much to the delight of everyone in the dreary household. Zhichen, it turns out, was also childhood friends with Yuwen and Xiu; we quickly realize that Zhichen and Yuwen still have feelings for each other, and learn that they had designs on marriage before the war whisked Zhichen away. The personalities of the characters are all carefully delineated, and fit with each other like pieces of a puzzle; Zhuangzhuang puts the picture together slowly, eschewing big dramatic revelations for moments where the relationships take subtle shifts. Such an exercise in formality, peopled by characters who are not exactly big on coming out with anything (except little Xiu, who has still not learned what it means to be a lady), will inevitably wear on the patience at times, but Zhuangzhuang has a way of injecting enough subdued poetry into his images that we don't mind the time it takes for the pieces to snap into place. It's not the kind of movie that reaches for big emotional effects, but neither is it the type that seems to shy away from emotion altogether. Movies like the Merchant-Ivory works are fastidious, grammatically impeccable and fairly heartless, while Springtime in a Small Town, for all its restraint, manages to resonate in the end. The difference between James Ivory and Zhuangzhuang Tian is obvious - Ivory keeps his distance for fear of emotion, while Zhuangzhuang keeps his out of simple politeness.

May be if all films were like Springtime in a Small Town, life would be a tad boring. As it is, the film is a fresh breeze in a stale room, which is also an apt metaphor for the story of a childhood friend and old flame reappearing in a small town, disrupting a dull, lifeless marriage.

This film is understated to the point of being minimalist. It is set in the aftermath of the Second World War, in a small town that has been systematically bombed and now mostly in ruins. In a run down old house lives a husband with a mysterious ailment; his young sister; a wife unsure of what she is looking for in life, certain only that she hasn't found it yet, and an old manservant. Into this mix comes a doctor from the big city, visiting his old friend. Upon arriving he is surprised to discover him married to his childhood sweetheart, the luminescent Yewen (Jing Fan Hu).

So, we have the classic love triangle: except may be not. The tensions which develop between the three main leads are delightfully understated, but culminate in several set pieces of pure drama. Best of all, plot resolution is achieved without the director/scriptwriter feeling the need to tie up all of the emotional loose ends as well. Some may find this leaves an empty feeling. Me, I thought that's life.

If you need another reason to watch this film (apart from the gentle, delicate story and the lovely acting) there is also the gorgeous cinematography of Ping-Bin Lee. This is not of the I-suspect-soon-to-be-ubiquitous overripe Christopher Doyle school, but an altogether more subtle and engaging beauty (though, interestingly, they worked together to create the Hong Kong classic, In the Mood for Love). Lee seems to be able to find beauty and mood in broken buildings, barren spaces and muted colours. It is a tragedy that the MTV generation pushed this film into the repertory theatres, as I would have loved to have seen it on a really big screen.

I suppose people fed and watered on I Robot and Saving Private Ryan might well yawn all the way through Springtime in a Small Town, but I think it was easily the best film (that I saw) in 2002. Well worth its 9/10 rating.

Spoilers

An alternative title of this film could have been the one for a recent local play in town: 'Tiny ripples in still waters' (as literally translated. 'Still waters' obviously have nothing to do with the fictitious rock band featured in 'Almost Famous'. It just means a dead pool).

This film reminds me immediately of the Italian gem Facing Windows I saw recently in Toronto, for which my comments started out thus: 'The ripple-in-a-mundane-life type of story is difficult to handle'. Both films deal with a stagnant marriage, and the ripple created by the intrusion of a man. The circumstances are however different, but I am not going to start comparing and contrasting the two. For Springtime, the main cause of the marital problem is the husband's (Liyan) lingering ailment. His home-coming childhood friend (Zeichen) turns out to be also the wife's (Yuwen) teen sweetheart. The only two other characters are Liyan's little sister, just turning 16, and a faithful old manservant.

The pace is slow but the film is absorbingly mesmerising. Behind the deceptively simple dialogue is an undercurrent of ebbs and flows of emotions, particularly in the case of Hu Jingfan playing Yuwen. (Look beyond the surface of the words she speaks into the subtly varying tone, the nuances, and the ever so slight shift in the timbre of her voice). Masterly use of a slowly panning camera creates the melancholy mood sustaining the intriguing lure of the film.

Particularly worth mentioning is the brilliant climax of the 'drinking' scene. I won't spoil it with inapt descriptions. If Hu Jingfu's performance has been subtle hitherto, it's sparkling in that scene.

Film critics in town who have seen the original 1948 version claim that it is even better. Hope to get a chance to see it. In any event, this re-make is well worth recommending to those who have the capacity to appreciate.

* * * *

Update - March 2005.

Have now seen the original, which certainly lives up to its reputation, but can't agree with the verdict that the remake is inferior.

The cinematography is the definite star of this film. Although the surrounding countryside is a bit stark (after all, WWII was to have just ended), the camera work was extremely beautiful. Slowly sweeping and creeping cameras really gave the movie an unusual feel and greatly enhanced the film.

The story itself is interesting, though the plot seems a little too slowly paced. I think about ten minutes could have been shaved off here and there and by tightening the film, it might have had a slightly better impact. However, the story itself is interesting and is an odd but excellent love story.

Liyan and Yuwen live in a rural town in post-war China. Liyan's impotence and health worries have meant that the couple remain childless, although they do look after his younger sister. The emotional separation that Yumen feels with her husband has caused a physical separation, with the couple sleeping in separate rooms. Liyan is surprised but pleased when school friend Zhang Zhichen comes to visit him – although he is surprised to learn that Zhang grew up with Yuwen before he met him. What he doesn't know though is that the pair were young lovers and, while young Xiu falls for the older Zhang, Yuwen also battles the sexual desire within herself.

The plot makes it sound like a very folded in affair that gives little away but suggests lots and that is pretty much exactly what this film is. When I taped it I thought that I was going to be watching the original film rather than this remake but I still found it well worth the watch even if some say it is an inferior film. That may just be a bit of film snobbery (though I have not seen the original) because I personally found this version to be quite rewarding and interesting. It requires patience though, and anyone tuning in not prepared to sit silently for two hours should probably not bother starting it because it is a film that, on the surface, doesn't have a great deal going on. It is the inaction rather than the action that makes the film interesting because it is all about the repression inherent in the characters and, supposedly, the society they live in.

Of course the mood of the film is very obvious and some viewers will just sigh and say "oh good another foreign period film about sexual repression" and I must admit that here and there I was thinking that because it does fold in on itself so much at times that I worried it would create a black hole. Fortunately it does just enough to avoid this and for the majority it keeps the surface moving by allowing the audience to see the undercurrents clearly. It won't be to everyone's taste but if you like things like In The Mood For Love and Merchant & Ivory films then you will enjoy this.

Director Tian makes the film look great and his slow, patient camera movements compliment the material well and helped me as a viewer get into it. The cast are also good and benefit from having few others to distract from the main characters. Jingfan Hu is strong as Yuwen and is able to suggest great passion and desire under the skin of a seemingly patient and quiet woman. Likewise Bai Qing Xin plays his character the same way and does well to work with and against Hu. Jun Wu has a harder task and, although he is good, I didn't think he had as clear and understandable a character as the other two. Si Si Lu is OK but the film rightly sees her as a side issue.

Overall this is a fine film that is worth seeing if you have the patience which it does ask you to have. The emotions are stifled but not to the point where the film dies away or appears cold – rather it is tense and dramatic for the most part. At times it threatens to fold away like a deckchair but mostly it is engaging and beautifully crafted.