Nós, Meninos Pródigos

A film strong and beautiful enough to live in my memory many years after the one time I saw it in college. It presents a highly atmospheric tapestry of comedy, drama and sweeping photography depicting life in postwar Germany, and is eminently deserving of release on video (or DVD). Its emergence in revival is extremely rare; what goes?

This is a most extraordinary film seen when I was young. Remember it must have been in the early 1960s, when Mao was hatching the Cultural Revolution, and it was dubbed into Mandarin by the Shanghai Film Studio. I can clearly remember that I saw the film in Shenyang with the Chinese title Tiancai (Genius), in Northeast China, and one of the Chinese actresses doing the dubbing was my ex-girlfriend, Zhu Xijuan who had then already gained prominence through her leading role in the Red Detachment of Women Hongse Jiangzi Jun (that was why I broke up with her.)

Could not find the film in any of my searches on Chinese sites (CORRECTION: since initial posting, I did find some information of this film on a couple of mainland Chinese sites using the German title 'Wir Wunderkinder', but with no mention that this film had already been dubbed into Chinese several decades ago, neither could the film be found by using the Chinese title in searching.) and I don't feel surprised at all. What struck me most at the time of viewing was the similarity of social atmosphere during the rise of the Third Reich with that of China just before the Cultural Revolution. There is no DVD/VCD production of this film now in China (although pirated versions of Western films are very common) and I think Chinese censorship may be part of the cause. After all, the Chinese translation and dubbing then were all very effective, it stirred my awareness then, what would happen if Chinese audiences got infected with such liberal ideas now?

Really hope a DVD version of this film can be made so I can ask my daughter (she's abroad) might get a copy for me when I'm still able to watch it.