The Spring River Flows East
Template:Infobox Chinese Film The Spring River Flows East (simplified Chinese: 一江春水向东流; traditional Chinese: 一江春水向東流; pinyin: Yī jiāng chūn shuǐ xiàng dōng liú) was a 1947 Chinese film directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli and is generally considered one of the great Chinese films of the period. The Hong Kong Film Awards ranked it in its list of greatest Chinese language films ever made at number 27.[1] Produced by Kunlun Studios, the film is over three hours long and consists of two parts, Eight War-Torn Years and The Dawn.
The film was remade in 2005 as a television adaptation starring Hu Jun, Anita Yuen, Carina Lau, and Chen Daoming, though this newer version is referred to by the English translation, The River Flows Eastwards instead of The Spring River Flows East
Title
The title derives from a poem composed by the last ruler of the Southern Tang dynasty, Li Houzhu (936/7 - 978). The poem, Oh When Will Autumn Moon and Spring Flowers End was written shortly after the loss of his kingdom to the Song Dynasty:
How much sorrow can one man have to bear?
As much as a river of spring water flowing east.[2]
Story
The film details the trials and tribulations of a family in pre-war, wartime and post-war China. The first part of the film, Eight War-Torn Years details the early life and marriage of a young working-class couple, Sufen (Bai Yang), and Zhang Zhongliang (Tao Jin) and the strain produced when the husband is forced to flee to Chongqing while leaving his family in Shanghai during the war.
The second part of the film details Zhang Zhongliang's return to Shanghai, now married into a wealthy bourgeois family for whom Sufen is forced to work for as a maid.
Cast
- Bai Yang - Sufen
- Tao Jin - Zhang Zhongliang
- Shu Xiuwen - Wang Lizheng
- Shangguan Yunzhu - He Wenyuan
Notes
- ^ "Welcome to the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards". 24th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
- ^ "Oh When Will Autumn Moon and Spring Flowers End". Chinese-poems.com. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
External links
- The Spring River Flows East at IMDb
- Spring River Flows East, Part I at the Chinese Movie Database
- Spring River Flows East, Part II at the Chinese Movie Database
- Critical analysis from the La Trobe University
- Essay from China.org.cn
- Essay from ChinaCulture.org
- Profile and discussion questions from Ohio State University
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