Springtime in a Small Town (2004)
89 %
Reviews Counted: 35 Fresh: 31 Rotten:4 Average Rating: 7.4/10
Consensus:
Visually sumptuous and well acted.
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Theatrical Release: May 14, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: A country town in South China. It's the spring of 1946 less than a year since the defeated Japanese withdrew from China. A young woman languishes on the bomb-damaged walls of the small town. She is bored frustrated unfulfilled. The sound of a distant train whistle triggers thoughts of... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Wu Jan, Hu Jingfan, Lu Sisi, Xin Bajqing
Director: Tian Zhuangzhuang
Screenwriter: Cheung Ah
Producer: Bill Kong, Marc Sillam, Yatmin Tang
Composer: Li Zhau
Screenwriter: Cheung Ah
Producer: Bill Kong, Marc Sillam, Yatmin Tang
Composer: Li Zhau
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
CommentClick to read the article
06/24/06
If you can go with the film's leisurely flow and accept the restraints it holds its lovers in check with, it can be a spellbinding film experience.
06/22/05
Click to read the article
01/15/05
Only a director who truly knows repression could have made a movie so subtle and so understanding.
12/03/04
Top Critic
Crafted in a style that seems to be learned from films of the thirties and, for all its scope, might have been adapted from a stage play.
11/23/04
Even potentially crushing situations are diffused by the respect each character has for one another.
11/04/04
There aren't a lot of plot complications in Springtime, a remake of a celebrated 1948 Chinese film of the same name. It's the way Tian tells his story that impresses.
09/30/04
[Springtime in a Small Town is] a quiet, thoughtful and beautifully wrought film.
08/31/04
Springtime in a Small Town moves at a leisurely pace. And because it's a work of taste and tact, you can watch it in a pleasurable state.
08/06/04
The drama can seem tepid from a contemporary Western perspective. But there's usually a tasty morsel of cinematography or performance just around the corner.
08/05/04
Reinventing his source just as boldly as he has reinvented his artistic identity, Tian circumvents the usual mentality of remakes by making his material brand-new.
07/10/04
Top Critic
It's heartbreak without the hysterics, and it's as beautiful as a still-life painting which makes you cry without you even understanding why.
06/04/04
What makes [it] so effective is Tians very carefully wrought visual style and the performances of his tiny cast.
05/29/04
This isn't a radical film by any means, but in its gentle tempo, its avoidance of the obvious and stubborn insistence on the decency of its three touchingly human characters, 'Springtime in a Small Town' weighs in as refreshingly, pleasurably different.
05/27/04
Top Critic
A movie that drifts across the screen with the delicacy of linen floating on a warm breeze, whose slow, sensual camera movements are like tiptoes on rice paper, yet which can sting us with the suddenness of a bee concealed in clover.
05/26/04
After more than a decade in artistic exile, China's Tian Zhuangzhuang has resurfaced with a veritable vengeance, delivering what may well be the crowning achievement of his storied, turbulent career.
05/23/04
The filmmaking is remote and austere, qualities often at odds with the story's emotions.
05/20/04
Top Critic
IGN RSS Feeds