Fei Mu

Fei Mu ( Chinese  費穆 , Pinyin Feì Mù ; born October 10, 1906 in Shanghai , † 1951 in Hong Kong ) was a Chinese film director and screenwriter.

biography

Fei Mu grew up in Beijing . After graduating from a French school, he worked for a mining company in Hebei Province . In addition to his French at school, he taught himself English, German, Russian and Italian. He has been writing film reviews in Beijing newspapers and magazines since 1924. In 1930 he became editor-in-chief of the information department of the North China Film Company. Together with Zhu Shilin , Fei edited the film magazine "Hollywood" (Haolaiwu).

In 1932 he moved to Shanghai when the Lianhua Film Company offered him a job as a film director. His debut film Chengshi zhiye (City Night) (1933), which deals with the class struggle between workers and capitalists, received critical acclaim ; he is missing today . In 1935, Fei Mu filmed Tian lun (Song of China) with Luo Mingyou , which glorified traditional Chinese family values ​​and was supposed to support Chiang Kai-shek's "New Life" movement. The film was also distributed in the USA in a shortened version. Fei discussed the imminent Japanese attack on China in 1936 in Lang shan die xue ji (bloodbath on Wolfsberg) .

With the Austrian emigrants Jakob and Luise Fleck , he created the film Sons and Daughters of the World in 1941 . It is the only German-language Chinese film and was the only collaboration between Chinese and foreign film artists before the founding of the People's Republic of China .

With Shengsi hen (Remorse at Death) , Fei Mu shot the first Chinese color film in 1948 , which also contains elements of Peking opera and has Mei Lanfang as the main actor. Feis Xiaocheng zhi chun (Spring in a Small Town) from the same year is a love triangle in post-war China and represents the culmination of his work. It was voted best Chinese film at the 2005 Hong Kong Film Awards by the Hong Kong Film Critics Association . In 2003, Tian Zhuangzhuang created a highly acclaimed remake of this classic. After the communists came to power in 1949, Fei Mu went to Hong Kong.

He suffered from chronic health problems and poor eyesight. Two years after moving to Hong Kong and founding the Longma film company - together with Zhu Shilin and Fei Luyi - he died. After his death, his work was almost forgotten and only found audiences since the 1980s with the reopening of the Chinese film archive.

Filmography

Director

• 1933: Chengshi zhiye (Night in the City)
• 1934: Xiang xue hai (Sea of ​​Fragrant Snow)
• 1934: Ren sheng (Life)
• 1935: Tian lun (Song of China)
• 1936: Lang shan die xue ji (Bloodbath at Wolfsberg)
• 1937: Bei zhancheng jingzhong lu (Martyrs of the Northern Front)
• 1937: Dujin de cheng (Gold-Plated City)
• 1937: Zhan jingtang (Murder in the Oratory)
• 1937: Chungui duanmung (Nightmares in Spring Chamber)
• 1940: Kong Fuzi (Confucius)
• 1941: Guose tianxin (The Beauty)
• 1941: Gu zhonggou zhi ge (Songs of Ancient China)
• 1946: Jinxiu heshan (The Magnificent Country)
• 1948: Xiao fang niu (The Little Cowherd)
• 1948: Shengsi hen (Remorse at Death)
• 1948: Xiaocheng zhi chun (Spring in a small town)

script

• 1934: Ren sheng (Life)
• 1936: Lang shan die xue ji (Blood on Wolf Mountain)
• 1937 Qiantai yu houtai (On Stage and Backstage)
• 1937: Bei zhancheng jingzhong lu (Martyrs of the Northern Front)
• 1937: Chungui duanmung (Nightmares in Spring Chamber)
• 1940: Kong Fuzi (Confucius)
• 1941: Sons and Daughters of the World (Shijie ernu)
• 1941: Gu zhongguo zhi ge (Songs of Ancient China)
• 1946: Jinxiu heshan (The Magnificent Country)

Web links

• Fei Mu in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• to Spring in a Small Town