Directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli, and originally released in two parts in 1947, The Spring River Flows East is generally considered one of the great Chinese films of the period
The Spring River Flows East, also translated as The Tears of Yangtze, 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.
Directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli, and originally released in two parts in 1947, The Spring River Flows East is generally considered one of the great Chinese films of the period.
Extras
Newly restored by the China Film Archive
A Stilted City. Chungking. China (1930, 1 min): a rare glimpse of the ancient city on the banks of the Yangtze river
