Fei Mu

Fei Mu (October 10, 1906 — January 31, 1951), also romanised as Fey Mou, was a Chinese film director of the pre-Communist era. His Spring in a Small Town (1948) was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.[1]

In this Chinese name, the family name is Fei.

Fei Mu
BornOctober 10, 1906
Shanghai, China
DiedJanuary 31, 1951(1951-01-31) (aged 44)
Hong Kong
Occupation(s)Director, screenwriter, film producer
Years active1933-1951
ChildrenBarbara Fei
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese費穆
Simplified Chinese费穆

Biography

Fei Mu's ancestral hometown is Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1906. Before becoming a director, he worked as an assistant of the film pioneer Hou Yao.[2]

Known for his artistic style and costume dramas, Fei made his first film, Night in the City (1933), produced by the Lianhua Film Company), at the age of 27, and he was met with both critical and popular acclaim; the film is now lost. Continuing to make films with Lianhua, Fei directed films throughout the 1930s and became a major talent in the industry, with films like Blood on Wolf Mountain (1936) which is often seen as an allegory on the war with Japan,[3] and Song of China (1935), a glorification of traditional values that was part of the New Life Movement. Later, Song of China became one of the few films that had a limited release in the United States.[4]

Fei's legacy as one of China's greatest directors was sealed with Spring in a Small Town (1948) about a love triangle in post-war China (it was later remade by Tian Zhuangzhuang in 2002 as Springtime in a Small Town).[5] Director Wong Kar-wai called him the only film poet he knew in China. In 2005, Spring in a Small Town was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.[6] Fei remained active in this so-called "Second Golden Age" and also directed China's first color film A Wedding in the Dream (1948), which incorporated Beijing Opera and starred Mei Lanfang.[7] Following the Communist revolution in 1949, Fei Mu, along with many other artists and intellectuals fled to Hong Kong. There he founded Longma Film Company (Dragon-Horse Films) with Zhu Shilin and Fei Luyi and produced (under the Longma name) Zhu Shilin's The Flower Girl (1951).

Following his death from a heart attack in Hong Kong in 1951 while working at his desk, Fei Mu and his work temporarily fell into obscurity, as much of his filmography was forgotten or ignored on the mainland and rejected by leftists as indicative of rightist ideologies.[8] It was not until the 1980s, when the China Film Archive re-opened after being closed down during the Cultural Revolution, that Fei Mu's work found a new audience. Most significant was a new print made by the China Film Archive from the original negative of Spring in a Small Town.[9]

Filmography

Director
Year English title Chinese title Notes
1933 Night in the City 城市之夜 Also known as City Nights; silent
1934 A Sea of Fragrant Snow 香雪海 Also known as A Nun's Love; silent
1934 Life 人生 Silent
1935 Song of China 天倫 Also known as Filial Piety; co-directed with Luo Mingyou
1936 Blood on Wolf Mountain 狼山喋血記 Also known as Bloodbath in Langshan and Bloodbath on Wolf Mountain
1937 Martyrs of the Northern Front 北戰場精忠錄 Chinese opera film
1937 Gold-Plated City 鍍金的城 Also known as the Gilded City; Chinese opera film
1937 Murder in the Oratory 斬經堂 Chinese opera film
1937 Nightmares in Spring Chamber 夢斷春閨 Episode in Lianhua Symphony
1940 Confucius 孔夫子 Thought lost, rediscovered in 2001
1941 Children of the World 世界兒女 Co-directed with Jacob Fleck and Luise Fleck
1941 The Beauty 國色天香
1941 Songs of Ancient China 古中國之歌 Chinese opera film
1948 The Little Cowheard 小放牛 Chinese opera film
1948 A Wedding in the Dream 生死恨 First Chinese color film; also known as Happiness in neither Life nor Death; Chinese opera film
1948 Spring in a Small Town 小城之春

Screenwriter
Year English title Chinese title
1934 Life 人生
1936 Blood on Wolf Mountain 狼山喋血記
1936 On Stage and Backstage 前台与後台
1937 Martyrs of the Northern Front 北戰場精忠錄
1937 Nightmares in Spring Chamber 夢斷春閨
1940 Confucius 孔夫子
1941 Children of the World 世界兒女
1941 Songs of Ancient China 古中國之歌

Producer
Year English title Chinese title
1951 The Flower Girl 花姑娘

Further reading
  • Pang, Laikwan (2002), Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-Wing Cinema Movement, 1932-1937, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., ISBN 0-7425-0946-X
  • Rea, Christopher (2021), Chinese Film Classics, 1922-1949, Columbia University Press, ISBN 9780231188135

See also

Notes
  1. Christopher Rea, Chinese Film Classics, 1922-1949 (Columbia University Press, 2021), ch. 10.
  2. Rojas, Carlos; Chow, Eileen (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas. Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-976560-7.
  3. "A Blue Apple in a City for Sale". Time. March 27, 1977. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2007.
  4. "Song of China, aka Filial Piety (Tianlun)". UCSD Chinese Cinema Web-Based Learning Center. January 10, 2003. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved July 18, 2007.
  5. Chinese Film Classics online course, Module 10: Spring in a Small Town: https://chinesefilmclassics.org/course/module-10-spring-in-a-small-town-1948/
  6. "Welcome to the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards". 24th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards. Archived from the original on October 22, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
  7. Zhang Yingjin, Chinese National Cinema, (London: Routledge Press, 2004), 101.
  8. Li, Cheuk-to (2000), "Spring in a Small Town: Mastery and Restraint", Cinemaya, 49
  9. Artificial-Eye.com staff. "Then and Now: Two Versions of Springtime in a Small Town". Artificial-Eye.com. Archived from the original on October 29, 2006. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
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