Springtime in a Small Town

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S R 1001 movies to see before you die. Another lost Flixster rating. 6/22 - It was Internet Archives. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Delicately handled... Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member It's slow but it's perfect. It's true to human emotion. I love it. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member The movie concerns a tragic emotional triangle between Zhang Zhichen, a successful doctor, who, on returning from Shanghai finds that his long lost sweetheart Yuwen, has married his best friend in his absence. That his best friend, Dai Liyan is a bit of a passionless, malingering whinger (whom, we are given to understand, is somewhat lacking in the trouser department) is, I think, supposed to tip our guilty sympathies toward the unrequited pair. However, there is no lingering eye contact, no haltingly emotional dialogue, no inadvertent contact, in fact no telegraphing of emotion of any kind between the friend and the wife. Yumen recites her lines as if they were a shopping list, and Zhang Zhichen seems to be reading his off the back off his eyelids. This peculiar lack of chemistry between the erstwhile lovers means that for me at least, this movie never gets off the ground. This is a real shame, as it is almost impossible to find fault with the LOOK of this movie. The cinematography is absolutely spot on, establishing shots are just where they need to be, POVs are perfect, the lighting reveals where it should and creates pools of shadow for the actors to move in and out of. Slow pans through densely textured interiors, alternately obscuring and disclosing, give an almost vertiginous sense of solidity and depth to the stage upon which the actors perform. That the actors don't seem to know how to convey the intensity and recklessness of true love upon that stage is the real tragedy of this movie. Two stars for acting, four for set design and cinematography Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Le film se veut raffine et visuellement riche, mais la realisation n'est pas a la hauteur de cette ambition delicate : devant des comediens dont le mot d'ordre a ete l'affectation, le cineaste translate sa camera de droite a gauche, lentement, et de gauche a droite, faute d'avoir des idees d'autre chose. Ce n'est pas expression, c'est maquillage. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Springtime in a small town was a slow movie.The set was beautiful and I was really waiting for something special to increase my interest in this movie but it never happened. The movie was boring, it only had 5 people in the movie and it was almost two hours long which was totally unnecessary. Most of dialogues were slow and meaningless. The movie tone was also dark,which felt so depressing to watch. I know this was a remake of a 1948 version, which I heard the original version was way better.My problem with Springtime was despite the beauty, there was no depth to the story. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Springtime in a Small Town

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