The Spring River Flows East

Yi jiang chun shui xiang dong liu

China

1947

192 Min

Black and White

Mandarin

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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DP Shen Xilin, Wu Tingfang, Wu Weiyun, Zhu Jinming

CAST Bai Yang, Tao Jin, Shangguan Yunzhu, Xiuwen Shu, Wu Yinyan, Yan Gongshang, Zhou Boxun

This epic drama begins in 1930s Shanghai: poor but honest Su Fen (Bai Yang) and Zhang Zhongliang (Tao Jin) meet in the factory where they work. They marry and live with Zhang’s parents in one room of a small house. Zhong Liang’s brother and sister-in-law work for the revolution in the northeast. As the Japanese Army approaches Shanghai, Zhong Liang flees to Chongqing with Nationalist sympathizers-namely a Miss Wang Lizhen (Shangguan Yunzhu).

Unable to contact his family for months, Zhong Liang has no idea that his father has died and his wife has borne him a son. In fact, his new life in Chongqing keeps him so busy that he forgets about his family left behind in wartime Shanghai, and eight years pass without contact between them. While Zhong Liang works his way up the ladder of success by using Miss Wang’s guanxi, Su Fen, her child and mother-in-law slip deeper and deeper into poverty.

At the end of the war, homelessness and starvation threaten Su Fen and her family. Assuming that Zhong Liang has died in the war, she goes out to find work. But with her previous experience as a factory worker, Su Fen can only find work as a maid in the home of a wealthy Shanghai family that have just returned from Chongqing. The family turn out to be relatives of Miss Wang, now Zhong Liang’s spoiled and jealous wife. When Miss Wang and Zhong Liang return to Shanghai, Miss Wang’s cousin throws a large party at which Sun Fen must serve the guests. Finally, she comes face to face with her long lost husband, now married into a wealthy, bourgeois family.

The last half hour of the film sees Zhong Liang struggling to pacify his spoiled wife while his impoverished family waits in the wings for him to recognize their existence. Distraught and heartbroken, Su Fen heads to the Bund with her son in tow…

A prime example of Shanghai’s leftist film-making past, The Spring River Flows East stars two of the biggest female stars of that era: Bai Yang and Shangguan Yunzhu. Bai revels in the melodramatic role of Su Fen, while Shangguan’s role as the spoiled playgirl challenges the likes of Alex in Fatal Attraction – but 50 years earlier.

Despite the melodrama and rather obvious bourgeoisie versus proletariat plot line, The Spring River remains nothing less than a masterpiece. The diversity of Shanghai society at that time is revealed in this film that captures the imagination for the entire playing time of 3 hours. —china.org.cn

Director

Cai Chusheng

Early career

Born in Shanghai to Cantonese parents, but raised in Chaoyang, Shantou, Guangdong, Cai Chusheng worked in low-level positions in several small studios during the 1920s, before eventually joining Mingxing Film Company as a director’s assistant to Zheng Zhengqiu, another Chaoyang-native. Cai later joined the Lianhua Film Company where he directed a handful of mainstream popular films including Spring in the South and Pink Dream (both 1932). He would not cement his reputation as a leading leftist filmmaker until after the Japanese attack in 1932, when Cai, like many of his colleagues, shifted towards increasingly progressive or leftist filmmaking. This shift can be seen in output after 1932, including the class-struggle dramas Dawn Over the Metropolis (1933), Song of the Fishermen (1934), and the proto-feminist New Women (1934), which starred Ruan Lingyu. Song of the Fishermen, for example, was a major box office success in Shanghai where it played for 87 days, and… read more

Early career

Born in Shanghai to Cantonese parents, but raised in Chaoyang, Shantou, Guangdong, Cai Chusheng worked in low-level positions in several small studios during the 1920s, before eventually joining Mingxing Film Company as a director’s assistant to Zheng Zhengqiu, another Chaoyang-native. Cai later joined the Lianhua Film Company where he directed a handful of mainstream popular films including Spring in the South and Pink Dream (both 1932). He would not cement his reputation as a leading leftist filmmaker until after the Japanese attack in 1932, when Cai, like many of his colleagues, shifted towards increasingly progressive or leftist filmmaking. This shift can be seen in output after 1932, including the class-struggle dramas Dawn Over the Metropolis (1933), Song of the Fishermen (1934), and the proto-feminist New Women (1934), which starred Ruan Lingyu. Song of the Fishermen, for example, was a major box office success in Shanghai where it played for 87 days, and it would also became the first Chinese film to win an international prize, doing so at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Hong Kong and wartime

During the war, Cai fled first to Hong Kong, where he helped launch Mandarin language cinema with Situ Huimin. In Hong Kong, Cai would also direct two films, including the anti-Japanese thriller, Orphan Island Paradise (1939). When Hong Kong too fell to the Japanese, Cai fled to Chongqing, China’s wartime capital, where he joined the government-run Nationalist Central Film Studio.

Post-war career

Cai’s post-war career saw him returning to Shanghai and becoming a leading member of the Lianhua Film Society (later incorporated as the Kunlun Film Company). His collaboration with Zheng Junli The Spring River Flows East (1947) also proved to be a major film and popular success in the brief “Second Golden Age” of Cinema that followed the end of the Second World War. Following the Communist revolution, Cai worked mainly in administrative tasks, though he did make one major post-1949 film, Waves on the Southern Shore (1963). As the Cultural Revolution began to gain momentum in the late 1960s, Cai Chusheng, like many artists and intellectuals, became the target of persecution, which led to his early death in 1968.

In Stanley Kwan’s 1992 biopic of Ruan Lingyu, Centre Stage, Cai Chusheng is portrayed by Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka Fai. —Wikipedia

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Zheng Junli

Zheng Junli (December 6, 1911 – April 23, 1969) was a Chinese actor and director born in Shanghai and who rose to prominence in the golden age of Chinese Cinema.

Early years

Zheng was born into an impoverished family, often harassed by creditors. At early ages, he showed great interest in reading and art performing. He left junior high at second grade and entered “Nanguo Art School” led by Tian Han and studied play acting.

During the 1930s, Zheng was an actor under contract with Lianhua Film Company. While with Lianhua, he played a number of roles, notably as the love-interest Yu Haichou in the film New Women opposite Ruan Lingyu.

From Sino-Japanese War to Establishment of PRC

After the war Zheng began to focus his efforts on directing, most notably with the film The Spring River Flows East (co-directed with Cai Chusheng) (1947) and his anti-KMT polemic Crows and Sparrows(1948). In 1957, the latter was awarded Excellent Movie Award first-class (1949… read more

Zheng Junli (December 6, 1911 – April 23, 1969) was a Chinese actor and director born in Shanghai and who rose to prominence in the golden age of Chinese Cinema.

Early years

Zheng was born into an impoverished family, often harassed by creditors. At early ages, he showed great interest in reading and art performing. He left junior high at second grade and entered “Nanguo Art School” led by Tian Han and studied play acting.

During the 1930s, Zheng was an actor under contract with Lianhua Film Company. While with Lianhua, he played a number of roles, notably as the love-interest Yu Haichou in the film New Women opposite Ruan Lingyu.

From Sino-Japanese War to Establishment of PRC

After the war Zheng began to focus his efforts on directing, most notably with the film The Spring River Flows East (co-directed with Cai Chusheng) (1947) and his anti-KMT polemic Crows and Sparrows(1948). In 1957, the latter was awarded Excellent Movie Award first-class (1949-1955) by Minister of Culture of PRC.

PRC period

Zheng welcomed the establishment of the new government of CPC. As a left-wing director, he was at first one of the beneficiaries. He moved his family from dilapidated dormitory in Kunlun Studio to the best residential area in Shanghai, opposite to the house of Song Qingling.

On 2nd meeting of CPC 7th national congress, Mao Zedong mentioned some issues of CPC cadres after entering the cities. Zheng immediately followed the directive and made the movie “The Married Couple” (我们夫妇之间), starring Zhao Dan and Jiang Tianliu. It told a story that a CPC cadre ditched his original wife in village in order to marry a girl in the city, showing his failure to resist the temptation of “sugar-coated bullet”. This movie was banned even before the public release.

Zheng was a member of Art Commission of Shanghai Film Studio, and used to support the making of “The Life of Wu Xun” (武训传). This movie was severely excoriated by CPC authority and Zheng felt guilty of that. His former production, “The Married Couple”, was also criticized at this time, which exerted great pressure on the director.

In order to criticize “The Life of Wu Xun”, Jiang Qing and her gang went to Shandong to do research. They found another figure, Song Jingshi, a peasant uprising leader of “Black Flag Army” in history. They thus erected Song and Black Flag Army as revolutionary examples to further denounce Wu Xun. They borrowed Zheng Junli for a long time to study this movie script. However, a dilemma was encountered by Zheng and Sun Yu, another screenplay writer. In the real history, Song Jingshi eventually surrendered to Qing Dynasty, but for political purpose, Song must be depicted as a determined revolutionist. A compromise was finally reached as Song’s surrendering was designed as a tactic. Due to the false position of “The Life of Wu Xun”, Shanghai Film Studio hoped new production “Song Jingshi” would redeem its political mistakes. The then vice director of movie bureau, Cui Wei, acted as Song Jingshi himself. Other famed actors and actresses were all willing to perform minor supporting roles. But because of the fact that Song surrendered to Qing authority, the movie was only allowed to be released for a short period after four-five years after its completion. In the end, this film of “atonement” didn’t pass the censorship and was banned.

After continuous lack of success, Zheng’s next two biographical pictures on Nie Er and Lin Zexu (both films starred actor Zhao Dan) won wide acclaims, and somehow alleviated his feeling of guilty.

Zheng was severely persecuted in Cultural Revolution, and died in prison in 1969.

He was a delegate to Shanghai municipal People’s Congress, a member of 3rd and 4th CPPCC, a councilman of China Film Association, China Playwrights Association and Shanghai Film Association. —wikipedia

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