And The Spring Comes (Variety, Screen Daily Reviews)

[dleedlee]

And The Spring Comes
Lichun
(China) An Asian Union Film & Media production. Produced by Gu Changwei, Er Yong. Executive producer, Dong Ping. Directed by Gu Changwei. Screenplay, Li Qiang.

With: Jiang Wenli, Wu Guohua, Dong Xuan, Zhang Yao, Jiao Gang, Li Guangjie.
(Mandarin dialogue)


A talented but unattractive woman in a provincial industrial city dreams of making it big in the Beijing opera world in "And the Spring Comes," top cinematographer Gu Changwei's respectable but lukewarm follow-up to his feature debut, Berlinale standout "Peacock." As in the earlier pic, Gu appears to have removed all transitional scenes, creating the sense of an episodic narrative populated by misfits who find contentment only when their dreams are shelved. Fest life is unlikely to generate much buzz, though a nuanced perf by Gu's wife, Jiang Wenli, was rewarded in Rome.

Not a sequel to "Peacock," as first reported, though also scripted by Li Qiang, "And the Spring Comes" opens with lovely shots of a traditional pagoda, expanding out to reveal its sore-thumb placement above a gray industrial landscape. Image is a nice metaphor for Wang Tsai-ling (Jiang), a voice teacher in the local school with a penchant for Western opera and an unfortunate skin condition. Though she lives in the same bunker-like housing as the factory workers, she holds herself far above her neighbors, boasting dishonestly of big-time Beijing connections.

Bumbling, Pushkin-quoting Zhou Yu (Wu Guohua) falls for Wang's voice and superior ways, though it's friend Huang Sibao (Li Guangjie) who hopes to use the homely teacher to get accepted to the Beijing Art Academy. Their temporary sojourn in Beijing is a predictable disaster, as Huang rejects Wang's amorous advances and Wang finds it impossible to get a foot in the door of any opera company.

Back home, humiliation continues in a scene both funny and sad, as Wang performs an Italian aria in an outdoor arts festival that has crowds ankling. Also publicly rejected is effeminate ballet dancer Mr. Hu (Jiao Gang), a self-described fishbone in the throats of the community for his swishy ways.

Further humiliations await until Wang accepts her fate as a mere provincial teacher and finds peace under limited horizons. Gu's strength unquestionably lies in his depiction of a small industrial city, colorless and cement-enclosed, where dreams are discouraged and individuality frowned upon. But there's little implied criticism, and by eliminating transitions, Gu turns Wang's story into a series of vignettes, as she and those she comes in contact with pass from one pipe dream to another. Populating the story with misfits also uncomfortably marginalizes their qualities and aspirations -- not only Wang's unappealing features and Hu's obvious homosexuality, but even the baldness of a young woman, Gao Beibei (Zhang Yao), who pretends to be dying of cancer so she'll have an edge at a voice competition.

Believably covered with unsightly acne, Jiang expertly captures Wang's puffed-up airs while remaining painfully conscious of her limitations. Her determination, however misguided, could be inspiring if Gu and Li made such desires feel worthy of support.

Scenes in the industrial city are generally lensed with natural light, and there's a sharp contrast between the dinginess of these cold boxes and the colorful bel canto gowns Wang dons to belt out Puccini. Vocals are dubbed by rising soprano You Hongfei.

Camera (color), Wang Lei; editor, Yang Hongyu; music, Dou Peng; production designer, Yang Fan; costume designer, Xiang Honghui; sound (Dolby Digital), Wang Xueyi, Lai Qizhen; associate producer, Li Kai. Reviewed at Rome Film Festival (Cinema 2007), Oct. 23, 2007. Running time: 94 MIN.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935 ... id=31&cs=1

[dleedlee]

And The Spring Comes (Li Chun)
Dir: Gu Changwei. China. 2007. 105mins.

Former cinematographer Gu Changwei’s follow-up to the well-received Peacock, which won a Berlin Silver Bear in 2005, sees the director teaming up once again with screenwriter Li Qiang for another 1980s period piece set in a provincial Chinese town. A funny-sad character study of a lonely, unattractive woman who dreams of becoming a leading opera singer, the ravishingly shot And The Spring Comes has an unhurried charm and a certain poignancy, but in this case the loose, episodic structure fails to deliver quite the same level of poetic payback as Gu Changwei’s magical debut.

Sometimes a bravura performance can paper over flaws in the way a character has been scripted, and that’s just what happens here: despite a compelling turn by a plumped-up, cosmetically uglified Jiang Wenli (which earned her a best actress award at the Rome Film Fest), the central character is never quite accessible enough to carry the film and not much is left once you take her away.

Gu promoted his first film energetically within China, where it took a little over $1m, a respectable haul for an arthouse title. With its provincial nostalgia trip and quirky character turns, And The Spring Comes may rival that result, but its main markets are going to be in festival and Asian niche slots elsewhere – where, however, it looks certain to underperform Peacock.

Steel worker Zhou Yu (Wu) hears Wang Cailing (Jiang) singing a Verdi aria through the public address system outside his factory and heads to the music academy where she teaches to ask if she can coach him in opera. We soon realise that he’s less interested in singing than in Wang herself, despite her unprepossessing appearance which is made worse by a bad skin condition. But sharp, self-controlled Wang falls for his best friend, handsome but talentless artist Huang Sibao (Li) to whom she surrenders her thirty-year-old virginity – and who promptly humiliates and dumps her.

Wang, though, is used to hard knocks as we discover when we follow her to Beijing, where a fixer demands yet more money in exchange for the residence permit she is desperate to secure and where she is once again refused an audition at the Beijing Opera. Though we pick it up from a few hints and inferences, the script does not make enough of one of its key conflicts: the fact that the kind of Western-style opera beloved of Wang was frowned on in a China that had only recently emerged from the Cultural Revolution. The singer’s problems are put in perspective when she befriends Hu Jinquan (Jiao), a male ballet dancer who is openly gay and who ends up getting himself sent to prison to get away from the greater prison outside. Episodes like this open and close, leaving us intrigued but not much the wiser about Wang’s inner conflicts. The film’s unexpectedly sentimental ending feels like a last-minute attempt to pull some of those loose threads together.

As we might expect from a director who lit Farewell My Concubine and Devils On The Doorsteps, the limpid photography is one of the great pleasures of Gu’s film. Consisting mostly of a series of mostly fixed-camera shots, shot Ozu-style from low angles, the film plays extensively with mirrors and reflections, commenting, perhaps, on the unreliability of surface appearances. The lush soundtrack, which alternates Schubert lieder with classic arias from ninetenth-century Italian operas, will appeal to bel canto fans everywhere.

Production company/backer/international sales
Asian Union Film & Media
(86) 139 1131 7051

Producers
Gu Changwei
Er Yong

Screenplay
Li Qiang

Cinematography
Wang Lei

Production design
Yang Fan

Editor
Yang Hongyu

Music
Dou Peng

Main cast
Jiang Wenli
Wu Guohua
Li Guangjie
Dong Xuan
Jiao Gang
Zhang Yao

http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=35773