Erinnerungen an das alte Peking

What gives this post-revolution era film a high score is that it is one of the earliest of the films shot in China that describes the pre-revolution era without any political bias and propaganda, a trend most could not escape.

The literal translation of the title actually is: Old stories of the southern part of the city.

For centuries, Beijing was consisted of three parts, the rich northern part of the town was consisted of northeastern part where aristocrats and royalties mainly resided, and the northwestern part where well to to merchants and landlords mainly resided. The southern part, an area that is equal in size of the northeastern and northwestern parts combined, is the place where most middle class and lower class resided. The story was told in the experience of a little girl of southern part of the city.

That is the era we can never go back.

I am speaking my opinion purely from personal experience. There are three things that impressed me the most about this movie:

1. The cute face and hairstyle of little girl Yingzi, and her eyes are full of innocence.

2. The theme music that always appears at the right time, revealing a touch of parting emotion.

3. The slow-paced way of life in old Beijing. For example, camels and donkeys are used as means of transportation, to dig well water, etc.

Everything is the real memory of little girl Yingzi, through her innocent eyes observation, it is really full of emotion, as if it is an unreal past. But I know that those people and things did exist. The good thing is that the little girl doesn't distinguish between good and bad, so she can get close to many people. Now we are all good at value judgment and moral judgment, and it is difficult to be a quiet observer like her.

"Let the past thing pass". This is one of lines. With the lyrics of the theme music, life seems to be constantly saying goodbye to people and things in the past. Both unpleasant and beautiful things will gradually leave us. What a sadness feeling at last.

This girl is so darn cute and disarming and curious about life and people. She is the perfect medium for the filmmakers to show us the tragedies of old Beijing and the ups and downs of life. Everybody has a good side in her eyes. People shunned by society or looked down upon arouse her curiosity. She doesn't listen to prejudice. There are three major tragedies here that are sugarcoated for a while by Yinzi's innocent perspective: the madwoman and her Guizi, what a terrible story and such a tragic end, the thief whom she grows very fond of, nanny Song's children and her awful husband and in the end her own tragedy. But all the while at least Yinzi showed them kindness and friendliness.

The recreation of town life in the early twentieth century is just beautiful. I loved the repetitive scene of drawing water from the well in the mornings, the alleys, the front of houses, travelling men and their donkeys, of course the scenery changes a little as they move houses and Yinzi starts school. And then that transition to autumn leaves and the bittersweet ending.