1001 movies to see before you die. Another lost Flixster rating. 6/22 - It was Internet Archives.

Delicately handled...

It's slow but it's perfect. It's true to human emotion. I love it.

The movie concerns a tragic emotional triangle between Zhang Zhichen, a successful doctor, who, on returning from Shanghai finds that his long lost sweetheart Yuwen, has married his best friend in his absence. That his best friend, Dai Liyan is a bit of a passionless, malingering whinger (whom, we are given to understand, is somewhat lacking in the trouser department) is, I think, supposed to tip our guilty sympathies toward the unrequited pair. However, there is no lingering eye contact, no haltingly emotional dialogue, no inadvertent contact, in fact no telegraphing of emotion of any kind between the friend and the wife. Yumen recites her lines as if they were a shopping list, and Zhang Zhichen seems to be reading his off the back off his eyelids. This peculiar lack of chemistry between the erstwhile lovers means that for me at least, this movie never gets off the ground. This is a real shame, as it is almost impossible to find fault with the LOOK of this movie. The cinematography is absolutely spot on, establishing shots are just where they need to be, POVs are perfect, the lighting reveals where it should and creates pools of shadow for the actors to move in and out of. Slow pans through densely textured interiors, alternately obscuring and disclosing, give an almost vertiginous sense of solidity and depth to the stage upon which the actors perform. That the actors don't seem to know how to convey the intensity and recklessness of true love upon that stage is the real tragedy of this movie. Two stars for acting, four for set design and cinematography

Le film se veut raffine et visuellement riche, mais la realisation n'est pas a la hauteur de cette ambition delicate : devant des comediens dont le mot d'ordre a ete l'affectation, le cineaste translate sa camera de droite a gauche, lentement, et de gauche a droite, faute d'avoir des idees d'autre chose. Ce n'est pas expression, c'est maquillage.

Springtime in a small town was a slow movie.The set was beautiful and I was really waiting for something special to increase my interest in this movie but it never happened. The movie was boring, it only had 5 people in the movie and it was almost two hours long which was totally unnecessary. Most of dialogues were slow and meaningless. The movie tone was also dark,which felt so depressing to watch. I know this was a remake of a 1948 version, which I heard the original version was way better.My problem with Springtime was despite the beauty, there was no depth to the story.

Really nicely done, kind of clumsy beginning, but it came into its own. The story is oddly frustrating, but superbly acted. So much unresolved tension. The scene where they all get drunk is simply brilliant. Not really an uplifting film though, and the cinematography was simple (though good), but bleak. I thought it was handled very intelligently though, if this were an american movie it inevitably would have turned into a murder-plot. And it seemed to start to turn in that direction, but like the convoluted love, it never really came to fruition. In that sense it's much more real but leaves you wanting more. It ends where it begins, on a forlorn note.

<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i31.tinypic.com/1znn3nm.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> Springtime in a small town was a slow movie.The set was beautiful and I was really waiting for something special to increase my interest in this movie but it never happened. The movie was boring, it only had 5 people in the movie and it was almost two hours long which was totally unnecessary. Most of dialogues were slow and meaningless. The movie tone was also dark,which felt so depressing to watch. I know this was a remake of a 1948 version, which I heard the original version was way better.My problem with Springtime was despite the beauty, there was no depth to the story.

In terms of Technique, this 2002 version is better than the 1948 version. However, the 2002 version tried to make the mood implicit, so the story becomes not very understandable. In the 1948 version, at least the film has the self-narrative of the leading actress; that makes the story and the thoughts of various characters much clearer.

not as good as the 1948 version

A quiet, slow paced film. Rich character development, a subtle love triangle, and a taste of Chinese culture from the period after the war and before the Revolution, the film still has the power to draw one in. The story revolves around a man and his wife, his sister, their servant, and the friend who comes to visit. The scenery is austere, the camera work is engaging, the acting is passable. One wishes he understood more of the customs of the times, but the overall sense of the film is genuine. No explosions and no fireworks, just a view of another time and place, this film is not for audiences who crave the adrenalin rush. Just add thought and rumination for a pleasurable experience. Three and a half stars. One note: this viewer found it humorous to hear a Chinese schoolgirl singing a native folk song to the tune of a Strauss waltz! Who knew?

So, now having seen the remake, apart from technological advances in cinematography--and honestly, the camera didn't need to dolly so often--I can't quite understand what this movie thought it was achieving that the original hadn't. At the very least, the Liyan character was much stronger in this rendition, but this exhibit really just feels more pretentious than the original. So, I like it slightly less, and based my rating around the original's rating.

An excrutiangly painful film to watch, that consists of poor performers looking into air, "subtle" gestures that are so subtle that they imply nothing, and a petty story about pathetic people. The cinematography is good until they move the damn camera, and than we get a great, queasy look at the ameteur video this movie was shot on. As far as the thwarted love theme goes, there are countless filmmakers who have set the bar much higher...Kar Wai, Ozu, Truffaut to name just a few...and all we have left is a bunch of empty posturing that forms the solid foundation for empty art. All that aside, this movie is absurdly boring with no excitement whatsoever to bring its drama to life. Lest one thinks that its my M온라인카지노추천 induced brain talking here, let me say that M온라인카지노추천 didn't spoil me...Jules and Jim did. There's no reason whatsoever to waste your time on this drivel.

A exceptionally beautiful chamber piece. Since I had recently seen the 1948 version, I knew the tune so I could focus on the style.

The movie concerns a tragic emotional triangle between Zhang Zhichen, a successful doctor, who, on returning from Shanghai finds that his long lost sweetheart Yuwen, has married his best friend in his absence. That his best friend, Dai Liyan is a bit...(read more) of a passionless, malingering whinger (whom, we are given to understand, is somewhat lacking in the trouser department) is, I think, supposed to tip our guilty sympathies toward the unrequited pair. However, there is no lingering eye contact, no haltingly emotional dialogue, no inadvertent contact, in fact no telegraphing of emotion of any kind between the friend and the wife. Yumen recites her lines as if they were a shopping list, and Zhang Zhichen seems to be reading his off the back off his eyelids. This peculiar lack of chemistry between the erstwhile lovers means that for me at least, this movie never gets off the ground. This is a real shame, as it is almost impossible to find fault with the LOOK of this movie. The cinematography is absolutely spot on, establishing shots are just where they need to be, povs are perfect, the lighting reveals where it should and creates pools of shadow for the actors to move in and out of. Slow pans through densely textured interiors, alternately obscuring and disclosing, give an almost vertiginous sense of solidity and depth to the stage upon which the actors perform. That the actors dont seem to know how to convey the intensity and recklessness of true love upon that stage is the real tragedy of this movie. Two stars for acting, four for set design and cinematography

Meaning is rendered not so much through words but through every subtle gesture or detail that the film presents. A masterful and a welcome return for the Tian Zhuangzhuang.

A body language film. I loved how each character spends most of the film speaking to each other with their backs turned away. So silently guilt racked, it becomes a sadistic but elegant joy to behold.

The movie concerns a tragic emotional triangle between Zhang Zhichen, a successful doctor, who, on returning from Shanghai finds that his long lost sweetheart Yuwen, has married his best friend in his absence. That his best friend, Dai Liyan is a bit of a passionless, malingering whinger (whom, we are given to understand, is somewhat lacking in the trouser department) is, I think, supposed to tip our guilty sympathies toward the unrequited pair. However, there is no lingering eye contact, no haltingly emotional dialogue, no inadvertent contact, in fact no telegraphing of emotion of any kind between the friend and the wife. Yumen recites her lines as if they were a shopping list, and Zhang Zhichen seems to be reading his off the back off his eyelids. This peculiar lack of chemistry between the erstwhile lovers means that for me at least, this movie never gets off the ground. This is a real shame, as it is almost impossible to find fault with the LOOK of this movie. The cinematography is absolutely spot on, establishing shots are just where they need to be, povs are perfect, the lighting reveals where it should and creates pools of shadow for the actors to move in and out of. Slow pans through densely textured interiors, alternately obscuring and disclosing, give an almost vertiginous sense of solidity and depth to the stage upon which the actors perform. That the actors don’t seem to know how to convey the intensity and recklessness of true love upon that stage is the real tragedy of this movie. Two stars for acting, four for set design and cinematography

this is a remake of a film made in 1948 - not surprisingly, it feels like a melodramatic hindi film from the 1950's. The husband is the only two and a half dimensional character, for the last 30 min of the film. sometimes, it's not a great idea to go back in time.

you can't just track laterally on every shot.