Happy Birthday, Fei Mu! Born today in 1906, this Chinese screenwriter, film producer and director was a filmmaker during the pre-Communist era.
Before becoming a director, Mu worked as an assistant of pioneering Chinese film director, screenwriter and film theorist Hou Yao.
Known for his artistic style and costume dramas, Mu made his first feature film in 1933.
The film was produced by the Lianhua Film Company (the original name of the United Photoplay Company) when Mu was at the young age of twenty-seven.
The United Photoplay Service Company was one of the three dominant production companies based in Shanghai, China during the 1930s.
The other two companies were the Mingxing Film Company and the Tianyi Film Company, which was the forerunner of the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers Studio. The latter was the largest film production company of Hong Kong.
One of Mu's most notable films during this time included co-directing the 1935 Chinese black and white drama film 'Tiān lún' ('Song of China', also known as 'Filial Piety'). Mu had borrowed the film's title from Confucian, Chinese Buddhist and Taoist ethics.
Co-directed by Hong Kong entrepreneur, filmmaker, and a pioneer of Chinese cinema Luo Mingyou, the film was a glorification of traditional values that was part of the Xīn Shēnghuó yùndòng (New Life Movement).
The New Life Movement was a government-led civic movement in 1930s China to promote cultural reform and Neo-Confucian social morality and to ultimately unite China under a centralized ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo.
Continuing to make films with Lianhua, Mu directed films throughout the 1930s and became a major talent in the industry.
In the later 1940s, Mu's legacy as one of China's greatest filmmakers was sealed when he directed the film of which he is best known.
This was the 1948 Chinese black and white romance/drama film 'Xiǎochéng zhī chūn' ('Spring in a Small Town').
Taking place in a ruined family compound in a small town in the Jiangnan region after the Sino-Japanese War, the film tells the story of the once prosperous Dai family.
Dai Liyan (Yu Shi), the crippled patriarch of the once prosperous Dai family, lives in his ruined family compound with his wife, Liyan.
Liyan's childhood friend, Dr. Zhang Zhichen (Wei Li), visits, and she is torn between loyalty to her family and her love for Zhang.
The film was produced and funded by Wenhua Film Company, a major privately owned film production company of the immediate post-war period in China.
Their great financial deficit at the time led Wenhua to produce 'Spring in a Small Town' on a low budget, with a minimalist plot and setting which required only five characters.
Upon release, 'Spring in a Small Town' was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. However, the original print of the film is now kept at the China Film Archive.
Made after the war and the so-called "Solitary Island" period of Shanghai filmmaking, 'Spring in a Small Town', unlike its leftist predecessors of the 1930s, was a more intimate affair with only tangential references to the politics of the day.
Indeed, the film can be distinguished from those earlier works by its more mature treatment of inter-personal conflicts, particularly in the sense that there are no villains or antagonists except for time and circumstance.
Even the husband, who ostensibly stands between Zhou Yuwen (Wei Wei) and Dr. Zhang's love, is an inherently decent and good human being.
Because of this apparent lack of "political" grounding, 'Spring in a Small Town' was rejected by the Communist Party as rightist or reactionary, and was ignored following the Communist victory in China in 1949.
The film was only able to find its audience and had a resurgence in popularity after the China Film Archive made a new print in the early 1980s.
Sixth Generation Chinese film director and screenwriter Wang Chao also declared the film to be one of his favorites and Mu the director he most admired.
Though the reputation of 'Spring in a Small Town' suffered after 1949 in mainland China after the Communist revolution, within the last two decades it had become known as one of the greatest Chinese films ever made. The original print of the film is kept at the China Film Archive.
'Spring in a Small Town' is not only a romance, but it also represents the physical and psychological trauma for people and country after War period, which is War of Resistance between China and Japan in this case.
Although people should celebrate after Japanese forces surrendered, the huge ruin for the country itself and people in China after the post war period.
The main important scene/motif of city wall is destroyed that the walls are not complete and overgrown with weeds.
At the same time, the main male character, Dai Liyan, also suffers under both psychological and physical condition that he feels hopeless and sick constantly after his house got partly destroyed by the War.
The repeatedly scene of broken city wall show in the film could remind audiences about the destruction caused by the war.
The unstable narrator and voice over from main female character Yuwen also represent the traumatic memory and inconstant life after the war.
Yuwen's explicitly talks about the memory and events happened in the past, main while she also demonstrates the things will happen in the future.
For example, she says that she never knows that Dr. Zhang will come to visit, even though she does not even see him physically.
At the same time, Yuwen's inconstant voiceover is unstable in that the voice is not present in the entire film.
This could reflect that she also suffers under the post war condition that she may have these hallucinatory repetitions, which she remembers the love between Dr. Zhichen with her and her loyalty to Liyan after he attempts suicide.
'Spring in A Small Town' applied some analogies in ancient poetry to the scenes and images in the film, like moonlight, candle and orchid.
Aside from being based on the background of the Second Sino-Japanese War and ruined walls image, the theme of Chinese poet and politician of the Tang Dynasty Du Fu's poem "Spring Prospect" (his most famous poem) was invoked in this film:
The nation shattered, mountains and river remain.
City in spring, grass and trees burgeoning.
Feeling the times, blossoms draw tears.
Hating separation, birds alarm the heart.
Beacon fires three months in succession, a letter from home worth ten thousand in gold.
White hairs, fewer for the scratching, soon too few to hold a hairpin up.
The poem was written after the An Lushan Rebellion in early 757 A.D., which almost toppled the Tang Dynasty and is often seen as the beginning of Tang Dynasty’s long decline. It expresses Du Fu’s hatred of war and his sympathy for the people.
'Spring in a Small Town' represents the physical and psychological trauma for people and country after the war between China and Japan.
Even though the Japanese forces surrendered, China was largely in ruins, having a large effect on its people in the post-war period.
This film also explores Confucian values through the romantic struggles between characters, Yuwen and Dr. Zhang.
Despite the tempting passion in the relationship between Yuwen and Dr. Zhang, it, ultimately, does not materialize, hence highlighting its unfeasibility within the framework of Confucian values: wisdom, intelligence, and loyalty.
According to University Lecturer in Chinese Susan Daruvala, 'Spring in a Small Town' acknowledges instincts and emotions as integral parts of a love relationship, yet they must be directed by wisdom or intelligence.
'Spring in a Small Town' could be regarded as a feminist film, considering Yuwen's voice-over narration is "unapologetic and frank in her description of her relationship with her husband."
Her blatant lack of guilt not only deviates from traditional norms at the time, but the film, which appears to favor her subjectivity, is also inconsistent with other films produced at the time.
Nonetheless, 'Spring in a Small Town' remains Mu's masterpiece; a piercingly poignant study of adulterous desire.
Following his death from a heart attack in Hong Kong while working at his morning desk, Mu and his work temporarily fell into obscurity. Mu passed on January 31, 1951. He was 44.
Over time, much of his filmography was forgotten or ignored on the Mainland and rejected by leftists as indicative of rightist ideologies.
It was not until the 1980s, when the China Film Archive re-opened after being closed down during the Cultural Revolution, did Mu's work find a new audience.
In the early 2000s,'Spring in a Small Town' was remade by Chinese film director, producer and actor Tian Zhuangzhuang ('The Horse Thief', 'The Blue Kite').
This was as the 2002 Chinese drama/romance film 'Xiǎochéng zhī chūn' ('Springtime in a Small Town'). Although the two films use the same Chinese title, they have different English titles.
In 2005, Mu's 'Spring in a Small Town' was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. Most significant was a new print made by the China Film Archive from the original negative of 'Spring in a Small Town'.
Mu had been active from 1933–1948.
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