Poetics of two springs

Fei Mu versus Tian Zhuangzhuang

James Udden

pp. 79-95

in: Gary Bettinson, James Udden (eds), The poetics of Chinese cinema, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

Fei Mu's Spring in a Small Town (1948) is often the most discussed work when it comes to the relationship between Chinese cinema and Chinese tradition. It is also often cited as the most quintessentially "Chinese" film in history. What is odd, however, is that Spring in a Small Town takes place entirely in the immediate postwar period when the film was made. Moreover, some of its most salient stylistic traits - most of all the voiceover of its female protagonist and its tendency to frame characters from behind - are forward looking, resembling more the future works of directors such as Antonioni and Bresson. By comparison, Tian Zhuangzhuang's remake from 2002 and Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flowers of Shanghai (1998) are a reimagining of the historical past, both through the lens of the cinematographer, Mark Lee. Are these two films somehow more "traditional" as a result? Or are their aesthetic features no less forward looking, telling us more about the present in which they were made than about the Chinese past per se? This chapter discusses the poetics of these three films not only in terms of Chinese history, but also in terms of their current political underpinnings. It argues that no matter how much any Chinese-language director may try to delve into the past, they can never escape the present in doing so.