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China 2002, 35mm, 116 minutes, colour, Stereo Dolby SRD, 1:1.85, 6 reels, Chinese
Copyright notice: © Glory Top Properties Limited 2002
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Director
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Tian Zhuangzhuang
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Produced by
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Bill Kong, Li Xiao Wan, Tang Yat Ming
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Stunts
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Zhung A-cheng
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Cinematography
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Mark Li Ping-bing
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Associate Producer
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Wouter Barendrecht, Eric Heumann, Marc Sillam, Alain Vannier, Michael J. Werner
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Editor
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Xu Jianping
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Production Designer
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Tim Yip Kam-tim
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Costume Design
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Tim Yip Kam-tim
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Music
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Zhao Li
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Sound
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Lu Jiajin
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Production Company
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China Film Group Corp., Beijing Film Studio
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Hu Jing Fan
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as Yu Wen, the wife
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Lu Si Si
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as Dai Xiu, the sister
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Wu Jun
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as Dai Li-yan, the husband
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Xin Bai Qing
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as Zhang Zhi-chen, the visitor
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Ye Xiao Keng
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as Lao Huang, the housekeeper
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After a long, harsh, dark winter, at last springtime has come to a small town in Southern China. The year is 1946 and the war had come and gone leaving a mark everywhere on the psyche of the people and a pitted and devastated landscape. A semblance of normalcy has just returned.
At the Dai family house, a once grand but now dilapidated traditional courtyard home, life has resumed its slow and leisurely pace. However, with the arrival of springtime there are stirrings within the walls of the house, which are soon to test the limits of love, commitment, lust and sacrifice. Dai Liyan, the head of the household is young but very sickly, while his wife Yu Wan is dutiful, but vibrant, beautiful and frustrated. Liyan's sixteen year old sister Xiu also lives with them, and they are assisted in the home by the long-time family housekeeper, Old Huang.
Unexpectedly one day a visitor shows up at the house. He is Zhang Zhichen, a former classmate of Liyan's and now a doctor based in Shanghai who has been travelling around China for a number of years. As big as China is, it proves to be a small world when it turns out that the good doctor was also a "neighbour" of Yu Wan's prior to her marriage. It is a joyous occasion for all; or is it?
Within days, the meaning of friendship, trust, honor, and the stirrings of lust, passion and sexuality all show their face--- only to be thrown together in a bubbling cauldron of unpredictable results within the seemingly serene walls of the Dai family residence.
Imagine all of this, during, springtime in a small town.
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