Spring Water Flows East

(一江春水向东流 Yijiang chunshui xiang dong liu)

Part I: Eight War-Torn Years (八年离乱 Banian liluan)

Part II: The Dawn (天亮前后 Tianliang qianhou)

Director: Cai Chunsheng, Zheng Junli

Screenplay: Cai Chunsheng, Zheng Junli

Cinematographer: Wu Weiyun, Zhu Jinming

Cast: Bai Yang, Tao Jin,Shu Xiuwen, Shangguan Yunzhu

Studio: Kunlun Film Company, 1947

Description: VHS; B/W; sound; two parts, about 190 minutes in total.

A note on the title: The Chinese title Yijiang chunshui xiang dong liu and the opening/ending singing lyrics come from a famous couplet of a ci poem written by Li Yu (937-978), who wrote it after he lost his kindom of the Southern Tang to the Song: "To ask how much sorrow one could have? Is just like a river of spring water flowing east."

Synopsis: Part I starts shortly after the September 18 Incident in 1931, when Japanese troops occupied the Northeast China. Zhang Zhongliang is a night school teacher actively involved in national salvation activities in a Shanghai cotton mill. He is in love with Sufen, a worker in the factory. They get married and Sufen gives birth to a son on the day the War of Resistance Against Japan breaks out on July 7, 1937. When the Japanese bomb Shanghai on August 13, Zhongliang joins an army ambulance corps and leaves Shanghai. Sufen, her mother-in-law, and son move to Zhongliang's native village where his father and brother live. But soon the village is also occupied by the Japanese. The brother, a village teacher, is forced to hide in the mountains and participates in the guerrilla war against the Japanese, and Zhongliang's father is hanged by the Japanese. Sufen brings his mother and son back to Shanghai. Zhongliang also suffers a lot in the war. He is captured by the Japanese but manages to escape to Chongqing, where he can't find a job and has no money and place to stay. In desperation, he seeks the help of a previous acquaintance, socialite Wang Lizhen, who not only accommodates him but also finds him a job in a trade company. After a short struggle with the debauchery in the "temporary capital" of the KMT governement, Zhongliang drifts with the trend and becomes Lizhen's lover while Sufen takes care of the family in hardship and waiting for him to return. Part II starts from the late period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese, Zhongliang and Lizhen are cohabiting in Chongqing. Through Lizhen's connections, Zhongliang becomes the private secretary of a powerful KMT-related businessman and lives a life of luxury. In Shanghai, Sufen struggles to support the family and to help refugees, who were tortured by the Japanese occupiers. In August 1945, Japan surrenders. Zhongliang rushes back to Shanghai to take advantage of the opportunity to grab possessions left by defeated occupiers. He soon has an affair with Lizhen's cousin He Wenyan. The victory over the Japanese doesn't make life any better life for Sufen, who now has to work as a lowly servant in He's residence. The husband and wife finally meet when Sufen serves the feast on the national holiday. When their relationship is exposed, threatened by shrewish Lizhen and unable to give up his current life, Zhongliang cannot reunite with his old family. He is condemned by his mother but nevertheless submitts to Lizhen. Heartbroken Sufen jumps into the river.

About the directors:

Cai Chusheng (1906-1968) was born in Shanghai, but attended private school in his parents' native place--a village in Chaoyang, Guangdong. He worked on farm in his childhood before being sent to apprentice in a store in Shantou, Guangdong at age 12. There he was involved in trade union and organized a spoken drama society. He helped a Shanghai film group taking location shots in Shantou and was deeply inspired for a career in cinema. In 1927, he went to Shanghai and started as handyman, extra and set designer in a few small studios until his talent was appreciated by the influential director Zheng Zhengqiu at the Mingxing Studio. From 1929 to 1931, he worked as assistant director to Cheng in six films. He joined the Lianhua Studio in 1931 and independantly directed his first two films--Nanguo zhi chun (Spring in South China) and Fenghongse de meng (Pink Dream) in 1932. He became the leading director in the mid-1930s, with Duhui de zaochen (Morning in the Metropolis, 1933), Yuguang qu (Song of the Fishermen, 1934), and New Women (1935). Song of Fishermen created the highest box-office in the 1930s and won award at Moscow International Film Festival in 1935. He continued directing patriotic films in Hong Kong during the wartime. When he returned Shanghai after war, in collaboration with Zheng Junli, Cai created another box-office record with Spring Water Flows East. After 1949, Cai mainly worked as adminstrator, directing only one film--Nanhai chao (Tide of Southern Sea, 1963).

Zheng Junli (1911-1969) was born into a Cantonese family in Shanghai. Starting out as a spoken drama actor, Zheng studied at the Nanguo (South China) Art School and participated in the Leftist Dramatists Association. He joined the Lianhua Film Company in 1932, and performed in Sun Yu's Dalu (Highway, 1936), Cai Chusheng's Xin nüxing (New Women, 1935), Mitu de gaoyang (Lost Lambs, 193), and other films. He started directing film in the 1940s. Collaborating with Cai Chusheng, he wrote and directed the box-office hit Spring Water Flows East in 1947, and then independantly directed Wuya yu maque (Crows and Sparrows, 1949). In the 1950s, he directed Kumu fengchun (1956), and biopics Lin Zexu (1957)and Nie Er (1959).

About the stars:

Bai Yang (1920-1996), originally named Yang Chengfang, started her acting career at age 11 when she was admitted into the Acting School of the Lianhua Film Company's Beiping (old name of Beijing) studio in 1931. She played some minor roles in films and theater before she joined in the Star Film Company in 1936. There she got the opportunity to play the heroine of Shizi jietou (Crossroads, 1937) which made her a popular star. After the breakout of the War of Resistance in 1937, she joined the Theater of Shanghai Film Actors/Actresses and performed in spoken drama on her way to Chongqin. At the Central Film Studio in Chongqing, she played leading role in several films--including Zhonghua ernü (Sons and Daughters of China, 1939) and Qingnian Zhongguo (Young China, 1940)--and in theater. Back to Shanghai after the war, she starred in Baqian li lu yun he yue (Eight Thousands li of Clouds and the Moon, 1947), Spring Water Flows East (1947), Huanxiang riji (Diary of Returning Home, 1947), and a few others. Wife of Xianglin in Zhufu (New Year Sacrifice, 1956) is her most famous performance after 1949.

Tao Jin (1916-1986), born Tao Bingjun in Suzhou, Jiangsu, was a famous actor and director in theater and cinema. He started performing in amateur theater in middle school and joined the Chinese Traveling Theater in 1935. He performed in three films produced by the Tianyi Film Company in 1936-37 but soon quitted. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was active in the propagandist theater for national salvation and performed in Shengli jinxing qu (Victory March, 1940), Qingnian Zhongguo (Young China, 1940), Riben jiandie (Japanese Spy, 1943), Huanwo heshan (Give Me Back My Country, 1945), and other films. When he returned Shanghai after the war, he joined the Kunlun Film Company. He starred in Shi Dongshan's Baqian lilu yu he yue (Eight Thousand Li of Cloud and Moon, 1947),and was invited by Cai Chunsheng to play the role of Zhang Zhongliang in Spring Water Flows East. Both were extremely successful. Later he performed in and directed a few films for the Guotai Film Company in Shanghai and Yonghua, Changcheng, and Daguangming studios in Hong Kong. When the PRC was established, he returned Shanghai with the Daguangming Film Company and joined the newly formed Shanghai Film Studio. Tao focused on directorial work after 1956 and directed popular opera film Shiwu guan (Fifteen Strings of Cash, 1956) and feature film Hushi riji (Diary of a Nurse, 1957). In 1962, he was transferred to the Zhujiang Film Studio in Guangzhou and made a few more films.

Questions to ponder: These are a few questions suggested for you to think about while watching the film. Please jot down ideas and notes on details or scenes you think are relevant for class discussion. 1. How many plot lines are there in the film? How does the film interweave national, gender, class discourses into the narrative? 2. What's the relationship between the national crisis and the family crisis in the film? Can you read the story allegorically? 3. How do you understand the different types of women (btw, how many types are there?) in the film? 4. How do you understand Zhongliang's transformation? How does the film present the transformation? 5. The film ran over three months in theater when it was released in Shanghai in 1947, and its audience reached 80,000. What do you think makes the film popular?

Relevant readings:

Grasso, June, et al. Modernization and Revolution in China. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1991. 120-40.

Sutcliffe, Brett. "A Spring River Flows East: Progressive Ideology and Gender Representation." Screening the Past 5 (Dec. 1998).

Web Sources: The Nanjing Atrocities: Online Documentary