Springtime in a Small Town

China 2003, 116 minutes
Dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Rating: [PG]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama

Aroview: Long-awaited followup to THE BLUE KITE for dir. Zhuangzhuang (who was banned from filmmaking for three years afterwards), constructing a restrained drama from a classic Chinese novel by the writer Mu Fei.

In the decaying gentility of their stately home, a young landowner is beset by illness and his wife is drawn to the attractions of a visiting friend in the years following WW2. Graced with a certain stage-set artifice, this conjures an understated air of romance, though is perhaps weakened by the drawn-out pacing.

NZ International Film Festival 2003