A Withered Tree Meets Spring

(1961)

Genres: Drama

Year: 1961

Runtime: 100 мин

Country: China

Director: Zheng Jun-li

Cast: You Jia, Zhihua Hu, Shangguan Yunzhu, Qianli Qian, Hongsheng Liu, Jiang Tianliu, Shiming Zhi, 吴云芳, Siqing Hu, 仲星火

Plot

A critical hit during one of China’s most politically charged periods, Zheng’s follow-up to his 1959 anniversary epics merged Soviet-style socialist realism with his own breakthroughs in film technique, specifically his use of continuous camera movement in the spirit of traditional Chinese scrolls. Tractor-kino at its finest, the film revolves around two rural lovers—one struck with a deadly disease—and their eventual survival thanks to socialist medical advances.