The original (1948) version of this film is widely seen as one of the best Chinese movies ever made. It is set after the end of the War of Resistance and during (although this is unstated) the Civil War between the KMT and CCP.
Set in a partially ruined house on the edge of a small town (shot in Songjiang south-west of Shanghai), the film focuses on Dai Liyan [Shi Yu] and his wife 26 year-old Yuwen [Wei Wei]. They married eight years ago but Liyan’s health has deteriorated (whether in reality or just for psychosomatic reasons is unclear) and Yuwen has become little more than a carer. They live with Liyan’s 15 year-old sister Xiu [Zhang Hongmei] and a servant Lao Huang [Cui Chaoming].
Then Liyan’s old friend, the Westernised doctor Zhang Zhichen [Li Wei] arrives. He has not seen him for 10 years due to the war. But it emerges that Zhichen and Yuwen are former lovers who parted when he left their home town.
The two are clearly still in love and meet on the ruined town wall. But both are constrained by duty. Liyan dreams of marrying Zhichen to the young Xiu who clearly has a crush on him. However, at Xiu’s 16th birthday party, Liyan realises that the Zhichen and his wife still have feelings for each other and decides to take drastic action.
Zhichen leaves and the film ends as Yuwen stands on the town wall looking into the distance. Liyan slowly joins her and she points into the distance in a possible sign of hope.
The film is a chamber piece shot in the house and a few outside areas closeby, including the ruined walls which Yuwen seems to see as a place of refuge. In all, only five people appear in the film. The camera and character movement is slow but clearly carefully choreographed and highly significant.
It is an unusually psychological approach for a Chinese film of the time, missing the melodrama of more popular films like Spring River flows East or Crows and Sparrows. It opens and closes with Yuwen and the story is told by her in a voice-over (a possibly unreliable one since it includes scenes she is not involved in). In fact, although it is easy to miss, the opening scenes echo the closing and the film is told in flashback.
The film can be seen as the story of the love triangle (albeit that nobody loves Liyan except Liyan). But it is also not hard to see it as an allegory for the then state of China. The ending makes little sense in realistic terms as there is little hope that Yuwen (who never loved him) and Liyan can improve their relationship. Rather the closing scene makes an allegorical reading not only possible but necessary.
The house and its occupants can be seen as representing the Republic of China, a group living in a formerly glorious mansion led by an ailing man who cannot lead. The only hope must come from outside, as the outcome of the Civil War. Of course, director Fei Mu was not a CCP sympathiser and left soon after to go to Hong Kong (where he died in 1950). The striking Wei Wei, who was only appearing in her third film, also moved to Hong Kong. Predictably, the CCP condemned this great film and it was effectively banned for several decades.
It was based on a short story by screenwriter Li Tainji (apparently untranslated). Li stayed in the PRC and went on working in movies for many years. He also acted, appearing as the KMT officer Hou Yibo in Crows and Sparrows.
The film was remade in 2002 by Tian ZhuangZhuang (his first film as director in almost a decade after the banning of Blue Kite). He closely follows the original story. There are three obvious chnages in approach: first, the film is in colour, second Tian dispenses with Yuwen’s [Hu Jingfan] voiceover whihc makes her less of a central character, and third he moves the camera further from the characters. In the ‘Making of’ documentary, he says that he wanted to achieve a more detached approach but, if he succeeds, this is not necessarily to the benefit of the film.
He also opens up the film a little showing, for example, Zhichen arriving by train in the (unnamed) town. However, Tian mainly uses the extra 20 minutes to slow the pace down. Again, given the careful pacing of the original, it is not clear that this is a wise choice.
The film looks great (cinematography by Mark Li Ping-bing) and the actors [Wu Junchen as Liyan, Xin Baiqing as Zhichen and a sprightly Lu Sisi as Xue] play their parts more than adequately. But the real question is, why bother? It is hard to see any reason to remake this classic film. The remake does not tell us any more about the individuals involved and it no longer works at an allegorical level as we (if not the characters) know that there is no better future.
Appropriately, the ending is also different. Rather than a view from the ramparts, the film ends with Yuwen trapped within the house embroidering.
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