TSPDT

Key Production Country: China
Key Genres: Drama, Romantic Drama, Biography, History
Key Collaborators: Zhang Yi (Leading Actor), Zhou Daming (Cinematographer), Huang Yijun (Composer)

"Fei Mu began his filmmaking career in the booming Shanghai cinema of the Thirties. Like so much of the best Chinese cinema of the period, his works revealed a strong engagement with the political and social issues of his day, yet what distinguishes his films is his acute sense of individual psychology. His characters are never mere social types, but richly drawn, often ambiguous souls attempting to deal with rapidly changing realities as well as they can. This can be most clearly seen in his masterpiece, Spring in a Small Town, considered by many critics to be the finest Chinese film made before the modern era." - Film at Lincoln Center, 2011

"Fei Mu was a Chinese filmmaker who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential directors in the history of Chinese cinema. His films, which often explore the social and cultural upheavals of early 20th-century China, are celebrated for their poetic, lyrical style and their deep empathy for the struggles and aspirations of ordinary people… He was also a pioneering figure in the development of Chinese film theory and criticism, writing extensively on the aesthetics and politics of cinema." - Bronze Screen Dream

"Fei Mu, also known as Fey Mou, was a theater director and film director best known for his acclaimed film Spring in a Small Town (1948). Fei directed a variety of films, including social dramas and anti-Japanese resistance allegories, for United Photoplay Services (Lianhua Studio) in the 1930s. Significant extant works include the dubbed musical Song of China (1935), the wartime biopic Confucius (1940, partially recovered and restored), and China’s first color film, starring opera star Mei Lanfang, A Wedding in the Dream (1948)." - Chinese Film Classics

"Fei Mu is considered by many to be one of the major film directors prior to the communist revolution in 1949. Known for his artistic style and costume dramas, Fei made his first film, 1933's Night in the City (produced by the Lianhua Film Company), at the young age of 27, and he was met with both critical and popular acclaim. Continuing to make films with Lianhua, Fei directed films throughout the 1930s and became a major talent in the industry, with films like 1936's Blood on Wolf Mountain and 1935's Song of China. Fei's legacy as one of China's greatest directors was sealed with his 1948 influential masterpiece Spring in a Small Town about a love triangle in post-war China. In 2005, Spring in a Small Town was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Association." - TMDB

"Fei directed 13 films, 13 dramas and wrote eight film scripts in his lifetime. Known for his artistic style and costume dramas, he made his first film, Night in the City, in 1933 at the age of 27, which was met with both critical and popular acclaim. Unfortunately this film is now lost… Fei’s legacy as one of China’s greatest directors was sealed with Spring in a Small Town, a period where no one seemed to care about a love triangle in post-war China. In 1949, Fei, along with many other artists and intellectuals, moved to Hong Kong and died two years later. Then, he and his work fell into obscurity and most of his filmography was forgotten and ignored." - Shanghai Daily, 2018