Fei Mu
| Fei Mu | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | 費穆 (traditional) |
| Chinese name | 费穆 (simplified) |
| Pinyin | Fèi Mù (Mandarin) |
| Born |
October 10, 1906 Shanghai, China |
| Died |
January 31, 1951 (aged 44) Hong Kong |
| Occupation | Director, screenwriter, film producer |
Fei Mu (1906–1951) was a major 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.
Biography
Fei Mu was born in Shanghai, China in 1906. Before becoming a director, he worked as an assistant of the film pioneer Hou Yao.[1]
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 (the film, unfortunately, 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 1936's Blood on Wolf Mountain (often seen as an allegory on the war with Japan)[2] and 1935's Song of China, 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.[3]
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 (it was later remade by Tian Zhuangzhuang in 2002 as Springtime in a Small Town). In 2005, Spring in a Small Town was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.[4] Fei remained active in this so-called "Second Golden Age" and also directed China's first color film Remorse at Death (1948), which incorporated Beijing Opera and starred Mei Lanfang.[5] 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 in Hong Kong in 1951, Fei Mu and his work fell into obscurity, as much of his filmography was forgotten or ignored on the Mainland, rejected by leftist critics as indicative of rightist ideologies.[6] It was not until the 1980s, when the China Film Archive re-opened after being closed down during the Cultural Revolution, did Fei Mu's work find 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.[7]
Filmography
Director
| Year | English Title | Chinese Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1933 | Night in the City | 城市之夜 | Also known as City Nights |
| 1934 | A Sea of Fragrant Snow | 香雪海 | Also known as A Nun's Love |
| 1934 | Life | 人生 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 1946 | The Magnificent Country | 錦繡山河 | |
| 1948 | The Little Cowheard | 小放牛 | |
| 1948 | Remorse at Death | 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 |
| 1946 | The Magnificent Country | 錦繡山河 |
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
See also
Notes
- ↑ Rojas, Carlos; Chow, Eileen (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas. Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-976560-7.
- ↑ "A Blue Apple in a City for Sale". Time Magazine. 1977-03-27. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
- ↑ "Song of China, aka Filial Piety (Tianlun)". UCSD Chinese Cinema Web-Based Learning Center. 2003-01-10. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
- ↑ "Welcome to the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards". 24th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
- ↑ Zhang Yingjin, Chinese National Cinema, (London: Routledge Press, 2004), 101.
- ↑ Li, Cheuk-to (2000), "Spring in a Small Town: Mastery and Restraint", Cinemaya 49
- ↑ Artificial-Eye.com staff. "Then and Now: Two Versions of Springtime in a Small Town". Artificial-Eye.com. Archived from the original on 2006-10-29. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
External links
- Fei Mu at the Internet Movie Database
- Fei Mu at the Chinese Movie Database
- A brief biography of Fei Mu
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