Fei Mu

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Fei.
Fei Mu
Chinese name 費穆 (Traditional)
Chinese name 费穆 (Simplified)
Pinyin Fèi Mù (Mandarin)
Born 1906
Shanghai, China
Died 1951
Hong Kong
Occupation Director, screenwriter, film producer

Fei Mu (simplified Chinese: 费穆; traditional Chinese: 費穆; pinyin: Fèi Mù) (1906–1951) was a major Chinese film director from the pre-Communist era.

Contents

Biography

Born in Shanghai, China, 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 (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)[1] 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.[2]

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 Association.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]

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 天伦 Also known as Filial Piety; co-directed with Luo Mingyou
1936 Blood on Wolf Mountain 狼山喋血记 Also known as Bloodbath in Langshan and Bloodbath on Wolf Mountain
1937 Martyrs of the Northern Front 北战场精忠录
1937 Gold-Plated City 镀金的城 Also known as the Gilded City; Chinese opera film
1937 Murder in the Oratory 斩经堂 Chinese opera film
1937 Nightmares in Spring Chamber 梦断春闺 Episode in Lianhua Symphony
1940 Confucius 孔夫子 Thought lost, rediscovered in 2001
1941 Children of the World 世界儿女 Co-directed with Jacob Fleck and Luise Fleck
1941 The Beauty 国色天香
1941 Songs of Ancient China 古中国之歌
1946 The Magnificent Country 锦绣山河
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 狼山喋血记
1936 On Stage and Backstage 前台与后台
1937 Martyrs of the Northern Front 北战场精忠录
1937 Nightmares in Spring Chamber 梦断春闺
1940 Confucius 孔夫子
1941 Children of the World 世界儿女
1941 Songs of Ancient China 古中国之歌
1946 The Magnificent Country 锦绣山河

Producer

Year English Title Chinese Title
1951 Flower Girl 花姑娘

Further reading

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "A Blue Apple in a City for Sale". Time Magazine. 1977-03-27. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946771-1,00.html. Retrieved 2007-04-15. 
  2. ^ "Song of China, aka Filial Piety (Tianlun)". UCSD Chinese Cinema Web-Based Learning Center. 2003-01-10. http://chinesecinema.ucsd.edu/film/tiannun.html. Retrieved 2007-07-18. 
  3. ^ "Welcome to the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards". 24th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards. http://www.hkfaa.com/news/100films.html. Retrieved 2007-04-14. 
  4. ^ Zhang Yingjin, Chinese National Cinema, (London: Routledge Press, 2004), 101.
  5. ^ Li, Cheuk-to (2000), "Spring in a Small Town: Mastery and Restraint", Cinemaya 49 
  6. ^ 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. http://web.archive.org/web/20061029182831/http://www.artificial-eye.com/video/ART260/more2.html. Retrieved 2007-04-14. 

External links