The Spring River flows East

This harrowing melodrama from 1947 is set during the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 to 1945) and concerns the trials and tribulations of two factory workers get married before they are separated by war and circumstance… The film is told in two parts: ‘Eight War-Torn Years’ and ‘The Dawn’.

The Story begins in the Shanghai of 1931 shortly after a staged event by the Japanese that turns out to be a pretext for their invasion of North-eastern China. Textile factory worker Sufen (Bai Yang) falls for fellow worker Zhang Zhongliang (Tao Jin) who also gives evening classes to his co-workers. Romance soon blossoms between the two. Zhang is fiercely patriotic and idealistic and urges his comrades to donate generously to support the North-eastern Volunteer Army who are fighting Japanese invaders, although Wen, the factory manager, is not happy about Zhang’s efforts against the Japanese. Shortly after, Sufen and Zhang get married and to the delight of his mother (Wu Yin) a baby is soon on the way. Shortly after the birth of the boy, whom the couple name Kangsheng, the Japanese troops reach Shanghai. Whereas factory manager Wen sends his cousin-in-law Lizhen (Shi Xiuwen) to inner China in order to avoid the war, Zhang joins the medical corps. of the inland resistance fighters and thus parts from his mother and family, who stay on in Shanghai. During the farewell he bumps into Wen and Lizhen who gives him her address with the words “Look me up if you happen to pass through”.
The hardships and battles that follow in the film are interspersed with clips of archive footage like the 1937 battle of ‘Bloody Sunday’ during which the Japanese bombed Shanghai. Sufen, her baby son and mother flee to the Provinces to join Zhang’s father and younger brother where they suffer terrible hardship and degradation at the hands of the Japanese. During one dispute over lack of food, Zhang’s father gets executed by the Japanese. Meanwhile, Zhang and the other resistance fighters battle on and are captured by the Japanese, though Zhang manages to escape. Destitute and without a penny, he arrives in the big city of Chungkin where Lizhen now lives. Remembering her words he knocks on the door where Lizhen welcomes him and offers him shelter. The next day her godfather offers him a job at his company, albeit reluctantly as the office workers have precious little to do. Initially still very idealistic and patriotic, Zhang soon buys into the carefree and liberal-minded attitudes he’s surrounded by. He now has a good life, good food, nice suits and soon he is seduced by the spoilt Lizhen who loves her little luxuries.
Sufen, Kangshen and her mother–in-law return to Shanghai where they live in utter poverty in a shanty lodging. Sufen, an equally idealistic goody-two-shoes, assumes her husband is still with the resistance fighters and not only looks after her little son – now a young boy - and her increasingly frail mother-in-law, but also helps out in a war refugee camp.

In the second part, we see Zhang promoted to the status of private secretary and he and Lizhen get married. After the Japanese finally surrender in 1945 Zhang and Pang fly back to Shanghai on a business trip while Lizhen stays behind in Chungkin. Meanwhile, former factory manager Wen and everyone who used to be associated with the Japanese during the war are arrested by the new Nationalists and thrown into jail. While this is going on, Wen’s attractive wife Wenjan (Shangguan Yunzhu) is only too happy to play host to Zhang and soon the two embark on a secret affair though the servants always know what’s cooking in the Wen household…
At the other end of the pole, Sufen and mother have a very hard time what with never enough food on the table and their hut in dire need of urgent repair work. In order to generate extra money as they are falling behind with the rent, son Kangsheng works as a newspaper boy while Sufen finds work as a domestic maid. Ironically, it’s in the Wen household…
During a cocktail party for which Lizhen arrives from Chungkin to be with her husband all comes to blows: not only does Lizhen get an inkling that Zhang and cousin Wenyan have a ‘thing going on’ but when the unassuming Sufen carries a tray with cocktails into the hall she recognises Zhang, who dances tango with his new wife. Almost fainting in shock and horror she lets everyone know that the man is her rightful husband. Zhang, equally shocked, replies that he assumed Sufen, their son and his mother are dead as he had received news of his father’s hanging… though we don’t entirely believe him. Back home, a devastated Sufen reveals the news to her mother-in-law who can’t believe what she’s hearing. Together they return to the Wen house to confront Zhang while an increasingly hysterical Lizhen demands that he divorce the unworthy Sufen. At the same time, Wenyan, who has fallen for Zhang and is jealous of Lizhen, is only too delighted over her fury. If the whole scenario wouldn’t be so devastatingly tragic it would almost be devastatingly funny! Utterly humiliated and sensing that Zhang is not willing to give up his new-found lifestyle of prestige and luxury, Sufen runs out of the house and to the quay where the film sees its tragic climax unfold…

Compelling as it is, some aspects in the story don’t quite tie up. For example, are we really to believe that Zhang, a man initially full of patriotism, idealism and love for his wife is able to make a 360-degree turn just like that and become a capitalist ‘playboy’? Likewise, after Sufen hasn’t heard from her husband for over eight years, how can she be so naïve to assume that he is still out there with resistance fighters and that he will return to her? Anyone with some logic would suspect that he’s either dead or has moved on to a better life (which indeed he has). That aside, this drama is a treasure of 1940s Chinese cinema and Bai Yang in particular delivers a nuanced performance as the long-suffering Sufen whose loyal love to husband Zhang is rewarded with him cheating on her and marrying a woman of wealth.