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

Springtime in a small town is not a film I plan to see again. I found the cinematography and the set to be beautiful and was really expecting to see another In the Mood for Love. Actually, with its quiet restraint, Springtime belongs to another era and should have been made half a century ago. In fact, it was, and although I haven't seen the original, I hear it is much better than the remake. That must be true because this is a story for 1948 audiences.The problem with Springtime is that despite the beauty, nothing happens. The audience is not drawn into the quiet frustration of the central characters. Thats partly because the doctor upsets the balance of the whole structure. Eventually the whole exercise gets tedious and is only momentarily enlivened by the childish drinking games at one family dinner.I don't think its fair to compare this to In the Mood for Love or Remains of the Day. There is no such depth to the story.

I usually don't dig Chinese movies. As far as asian cinema is concerned, I am more a Japanese or Korean fan. But this Springtime is bliss. Just about everything is beautiful, from script to cinematography to acting (with the notable exception of the girl who plays the young sister, whom I thought was over-acting).One thing I thought was interesting is the way director Tian expressed his intention of editing from the original version of the movie (shot in the '50s) all the elements that would not appeal to a viewer today. Therefore, we must assume that pre-arranged weddings are still a common fact in today's China. What about love ?Well, enough for the pseudo-sociological analysis. On a more pleasure-oriented level, this is a jewel. Not a perfect movie, granted, I couldn't rate it more than the 8 I gave it, but such a nice little piece of work. Colors, sounds, camera movements, actor's play, everything is fluid, warm, inhabited. A very nice springtime in a small town indeed...

Master of contemporary criticism, the director tried to continue his work despite the setback of Blue Kite (Lan Feng Zheng, 1993). It was nearly ten years since his last movie, Blue Kite and this time, the director is forced back to the old cautious approach of using old China to mask the criticism of the contemporary China.The major theme behind the movie, is that everyone knows that something is not right and something needs to be done, but nobody does anything significant, and things are back to the way it was. This theme is the reflection of current China, and the member of its regime: everyone knows reforms needs to be speed up and deepened but nobody does anything and things are just the way it was, if no worse.