China News Service, Pingyao, Shanxi, October 5th. Title: Fei Mu’s 120th Birthday: Why Spring is Not Far Away in the “Small Town”
China News Service reporter Hu Jian
"Fei Mu's life was short, but he lived longer."
The 10th Pingyao International Film Festival was held recently in the ancient city of Pingyao, Jinzhong, Shanxi. The 1948 film "Spring in a Small Town" (4K restored version) directed by Chinese director Fei Mu held its Asian premiere in the "Spring in a Small Town" hall of Pingyao Film Palace. Fei Mu's son Fei Mingxu took the stage and talked about his father with short words and long feelings.
As early as the "First Year of Pingyao" in 2017, the organizing committee of the first Pingyao International Film Festival regarded Fei Mu as the humanistic coordinate of the film festival, and established the "Fei Mu Honor" with the authorization of Fei Mu's family to reward newcomers to Chinese films.
Nearly ten years later, this 78-year-old work was restored in 4K by the China Film Archive. For the first time, the soundtrack was completely restored, the 5.1-channel sound track was remastered, and it "returned" to the theater named after it. This "reunion" across time and space is a vivid footnote to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Fei Mu's birth.
Fei Mu was born in Shanghai in 1906. He was originally from Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province (today's Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). When he was young, he moved with his family to Peiping (today's Beijing), where he studied at a French school and taught himself many foreign languages. He joined Lianhua Film Company in 1932 and became famous the following year with his directorial debut "City Night".
In 1936, the film "Family" directed by Fei Mu was purchased by an American film company and released in Los Angeles and other places. It became the first Chinese film to be actively purchased by an American film company and publicly screened in the United States. In an era when world movies were still centered on Europe and the United States, Chinese movies have completed a rare "going overseas".
When the country is in turmoil, Fei Mu's camera always keeps pace with the times.
In 1936, he filmed "Blood on Wolf Mountain" with a fable technique, which was regarded as an important work of "national defense film". During the "Isolated Island" period, he borrowed "Confucius" to clarify his ambitions. After the Pacific War broke out and the Japanese and puppets took control of the Shanghai film industry, he refused to cooperate, quit the film industry and turned to the drama stage.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, his creative peak was in 1948. This year, he collaborated with Peking opera artist Mei Lanfang to shoot China's first color film "Life and Death"; and in 101 days, he shot "Spring in a Small Town", which was later regarded as the pioneering work of Chinese literati films.
"Spring in a Small Town" has only five actors in the whole film. Fei Mu uses the narration of the heroine Zhou Yuwen to narrate a reunion of an old love that "starts with love but ends with etiquette". The film received a lukewarm response after its release, with some commenting that it had "forgotten the times". Over the next few decades, it fell into obscurity.
Fortunately, time has given the answer.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the value of "Small Town Spring" was rediscovered, causing a shock in the film industry. In the 1990s, the film was selected as one of the "Top Ten Business Cards of Chinese Film in the 90s" selected by the Shanghai Film Critics Society. In 2005, the Hong Kong Film Awards Association and the Hong Kong Film Critics Society selected "The 100 Best Chinese Films in the 100 Years of the Birth of Chinese Films", and "Spring in a Small Town" topped the list with the highest votes. The film was also selected in the list of film history films selected by the British "Sight and Sound" magazine.
What was the significance of Fei Mu in the Chinese film industry at that time?
In the 1930s and 1940s, Chinese films focused on social realism and survival. Fei Mu proved that movies can also be "poetry". Long shots, empty shots, narrations and blank spaces - he has integrated the implicitness of classical Chinese poetry, the artistic conception of blank spaces in Chinese paintings, and the freehand brushwork of traditional operas into modern film language.
Zhou Xing, a professor at Beijing Normal University, called "Spring in a Small Town" "a model of the nationalization of Chinese film art"; scholars such as Peking University professor Dai Jinhua regard it as the starting point of "modernity" in Chinese films. The article "A Brief Talk on "Air"" written by Fei Mu in his early years is still a very original chapter in Chinese director theory.
Some commentators pointed out that at almost the same time, Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu was also writing about family ethics through a silent lens. Regardless of the East or the West, film aesthetics can achieve a certain coincidence in their respective traditions. This is another form of mutual learning between civilizations: there is no need to imitate, each is deeply rooted in tradition, and eventually we can meet at a high place.
In January 1951, Fei Mu died of illness in Hong Kong at the age of 45. A memorial service was held for the Hong Kong filmmaker, and writer Sima Vincent delivered a eulogy, calling him a "patriotic filmmaker."
Looking back at the 120th anniversary of Fei Mu's birth, the treasures Fei Mu left behind today are still worth collecting by Chinese filmmakers.
First, it is the determination of aesthetics. Five people, one garden, low cost, and a century-old masterpiece of film history, relying on the belief in people's understanding and expression. "Love Letter to Grandma", which has gained a good reputation this year, can be regarded as another simple expression of Eastern love.
The second is the modern transformation of tradition. Fei Mu proved that modernity does not have to be imported from elsewhere; it can grow out of its own context. Chinese films need to use Eastern aesthetics to participate in world dialogue, and "Spring in a Small Town" is one of the best examples.
The third is the awareness of inheritance. From frame-by-frame restorations at the China Film Archive to film festivals awarding newcomers with the "Fei Mu Honor", classics have never been specimens in museums, but need to be "awakened" again from generation to generation.
Just as the film festival master class is named "Spring is Not Far Away in a Small Town", it is both a commemoration and a look back at the origins of Chinese films. As Fei Mingxu said: Life is short, art is long.
