Wuya yu maque (Crows and Sparrows)
Zheng Junli, CN 1949; Screenplay: Chen Baichen; Cinematography: Hu Zhenhua, Miao Zhenhua; Editing: Wu Tingfang; Music: Wang Yunjie; Cast: Zhao Dan, Wu Yin, Sun Daolin, Wei Heling. DCP (from 35mm), bw, 113 min. Mandarin with English subtitlesZheng Junli's leftist masterpiece was filmed between late 1948 and early 1949 during the tumult of the Civil War, the Nationalist retreat to Taiwan, and the impending Communist victory. Corrupt Nationalist official Hou and his mistress Yu need to sell the apartment building he appropriated before they flee. Its tenants, newsman Kong, teacher Hao and his wife and child, and the Xiaos, street peddlers with three kids, are all to be thrown out. Fear isolates the tenants at first. But a series of carefully depicted conflicts (arrest, disease, gang violence) gradually raise their collective self-awareness, and they finally sense their true power: collective resistance breeds the courage that overpowers their oppressor Hou. The film ends just as the Communist army liberates Shanghai; the characters within its story unite to liberate themselves as a new era dawns. One of the greatest revolutionary films, which illustrates how solidarity is built and how it triumphs. (S.K.)