The Spring River Flows East (1947)

The Spring River Flows East, also translated as The Tears of Yangtze, is a 1947 Chinese film directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli and is generally considered one of the great Chinese films of the period. The Hong Kong Film Awards ranked it in its list of greatest Chinese language films ever made at number 27. Produced by Kunlun Film Company, the film is over three hours long and consists of two parts, Eight War-Torn Years (八年離亂) and The Dawn (天亮前后), released one after the other the same year.

The film details the trials and tribulations of a family around the Second Sino-Japanese War, in pre-war, wartime and post-war China. The first part of the film, Eight War-Torn Years details the early life and marriage of a young working-class couple, Sufen (Bai Yang), and Zhang Zhongliang (Tao Jin) and the strain produced when the husband is forced to flee to Chungking while leaving his family in Shanghai during the war.

The second part of the film details Zhang Zhongliang's return to Shanghai, now married into a wealthy bourgeois family for whom Sufen is forced to work as a maid.

The film was remade in 2005 as a television adaptation starring Hu Jun, Anita Yuen, Carina Lau, and Chen Daoming, but the newer version is translated into English as The River Flows Eastwards.

Synopsis

Part One is about 100 minutes in length. The film is set in Shanghai and begins shortly after the Mukden Incident of 1931. Sufen (Bai Yang) works in a textile factory; Zhang Zhongliang (Tao Jin) gives evening classes to the workers. During a National Day (October 10) celebration at the factory, Zhang successfully urges the workers to donate to the Northeastern Volunteer Army who are fighting the Japanese invaders in Manchuria. He is reprimanded by the factory's Manager Wen for going against the Japanese.

Actors