An art movie which is not outdated even in 21st century!

They say this is one of the best Chinese films ever made

Jingfan Hu in Springtime in a Small Town (2002)

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)

Wei Li and Wei Wei in Spring in a Small Town (1948)

Yu Shi and Wei Wei in Spring in a Small Town (1948)

Wei Li, Yu Shi, Wei Wei, and Hongmei Zhang in Spring in a Small Town (1948)

Wei Li and Hongmei Zhang in Spring in a Small Town (1948)

Chaoming Cui

Wei Li

Yu Shi

Tianji Li

A lonely housewife finds her monotonous life altered when her childhood sweetheart returns to town.

Mu Fei

Xiao cheng zhi chun

Simple but well done.

&quot;Spring in a Small Town&quot; is a very simple movie--a simple premise, a small cast and it&apos;s all done in a very restrained manner. It&apos;s a definite example of minimalistic cinema and is worth your time.

The film is set in rural China--just a year before the Communist takeover. Liyan is sickly--with tuberculosis. However, his main problem is depression--he feels very sorry for himself and has no will to do anything. Most of the time, he just sits outside and broods. Not surprisingly, his wife (Yuwen) is not happy but is quite dutiful towards her husband. Into this sad family comes a surprise visit from one of Liyan&apos;s old friends who he hasn&apos;t seen in a decade. But it gets more complicated. The friend (Zhang) is shocked to see that Liyan&apos;s wife is his old lover!! Not surprisingly, he and Yuwen say nothing and at first, they keep their distance. Where does all this go? It probably doesn&apos;t go exactly where you expect....see it and find out for yourself.

My score of 8 is awfully high for such a simple film, but I was impressed that the movie was handled so simply and honestly. My only complaint, and you can&apos;t blame the filmmakers, is that the quality of the DVD print is pretty poor. My assumption is that Cinema Epoch did not have access to a better copy--though it would be nice to see this film restored to eliminate the scratches and clean everything up a bit.

China has been churning out a myriad of cinematic treasures that belong on your Watchlist, so on this IMDbrief, we present a Streaming Passport to just a few of our favorites from and about China.

Streaming Passport to China

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"Spring in a Small Town" is a very simple movie--a simple premise, a small cast and it's all done in a very restrained manner. It's a definite example of minimalistic cinema and is worth your time.

The film is set in rural China--just a year before the Communist takeover. Liyan is sickly--with tuberculosis. However, his main problem is depression--he feels very sorry for himself and has no will to do anything. Most of the time, he just sits outside and broods. Not surprisingly, his wife (Yuwen) is not happy but is quite dutiful towards her husband. Into this sad family comes a surprise visit from one of Liyan's old friends who he hasn't seen in a decade. But it gets more complicated. The friend (Zhang) is shocked to see that Liyan's wife is his old lover!! Not surprisingly, he and Yuwen say nothing and at first, they keep their distance. Where does all this go? It probably doesn't go exactly where you expect....see it and find out for yourself.

My score of 8 is awfully high for such a simple film, but I was impressed that the movie was handled so simply and honestly. My only complaint, and you can't blame the filmmakers, is that the quality of the DVD print is pretty poor. My assumption is that Cinema Epoch did not have access to a better copy--though it would be nice to see this film restored to eliminate the scratches and clean everything up a bit.

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