The Winter of 1905 (Digitally Remastered Version)
一九零五的冬天 (数字修復版) 「Yījiǔ líng wǔ de dōngtiān (shùzì xiūfù bǎn)」
Release Date: 1981
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Yu Wei-Cheng
Writer: Edward Yang (Screenplay),
Producer: Yu Wei-yen
Starring: Wong Hap-Kwan (Li Shu-tong), Tsui Hark (Chao Nien), Tse-Min Chin (Haruko), Edward Yang (Lieutenant Tanaka),
The Winter of 1905 is a historical drama that details the life of Li Shutong (Wong Hap-Kwan), the son of a wealthy Shangainese family whose studies and works in art would later go on to influence future changes in Chinese culture and philosophy via the New Chinese Culture movement. It rather respectfully imagines his time as a 25-year-old student in Tokyo during the Russo-Japanese war. Having left China (and a string of women) behind in pursuit of artistic ideals, he finds himself excelling in various arts such as painting, music, and drama while ensconced in Tokyo, but unable to shake his connection to his homeland as nationalist tensions rise throughout the region.
The pull of art and politics are represented in his personal life by two people, fellow Chinese student and childhood friend Chao Nien (played by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark) and Haruko (Tse-Min Chin) a Japanese music student who moonlights as a Geisha. While the former agitates for the fall of the corrupt and weak Manchu dynasty that has run their country into the ground the latter offers her love and support at a critical time when Li finds himself cast adrift by political and financial misfortune and racial discrimination.
The screenplay is solidly constructed in a way that it offers plain emotional conflict via the side characters and the way their contrapuntal story parallels create divergent life paths for Li Shutong to follow or to reject. The social context is rich enough to hook interest, vis a vis wars and colonialism, and acts like a couch for characters to sit upon as they espouse broadly-written dialogue full of politics and personal identity. Perhaps events and exposition are somewhat predictable but, whatever the case, the characters and their drama are enlivened by the principal cast, some of whom were non-actors. Tsui Hark is especially fun to watch as he displays more emotional intensity than others and gets an action scene. That written, if one were to look for fireworks of romance and violence along cross-cultural lines, the Jet Li martial arts flick Fist of Legend (1994) is a definite recommend.
Indeed, the film is more functional than beautiful. Perhaps televisional. It features steady editing and clear framing/composition used to convey information rather than express emotions with strong intensity.
There are beautiful images but we are watching ideas play out: ideas of Chinese nationalism and Japanese/Western imperial expansion discussed in many meetings. Ideas of Li Shutong’s life lived in art: he paints, he reads, he plays the piano, he strides on stage. Ideas of Li Shutong’s love in and out of jeopardy: a couple hand-in-hand or sat at opposite sides of a table. Where the beauty comes in is the setting as the film was shot on location in Japan and benefits from what looks like period-correct buildings and set decoration and costuming. The house of Mrs. Matsuda that Li Shutong boards in, the university grounds, and the streets around the Geisha house with a nearby bridge serving as a night-time rendezvous for Li Shutong and Haruko.
Where it stands out more is as an interesting historical document as it was a film where many of the Taiwan New Wave gathered on their earliest theatrical work. This was an independent work based on money earned in real estate deals by the director’s brother, Yu Wei-yan, who acted as a producer and worked on the screenplay. He would go on to produce a number of Edward Yang’s films. For his part, Edward Yang made his cinematic debut by co-writing the screenplay and showing up as a Japanese soldier returning from war early in the narrative. The film was screened at a few festivals but never given an official release. Therefore, this modern remaster is a rare opportunity to watch it.
Overall, it is a solid directorial debut where cinematic language is carefully used so that everything is easy to understand and complex themes are cleanly and concisely delivered. As an emotional experience, this is a rather sedate time with little expressive intensity cinematically and just a smidgen of feeling to appeal to common emotions. Taking up more space is a clean-cut look at how an influential figure in Chinese history journeyed towards being a person who would influence Chinese nationalism.
For anyone interested in this period of time, try out Seijun Suzuki’s Taisho Trilogy, which was made from 1980 – 1991 and with a settling ever so slightly later in time period by a few years but mostly the same sort of locations and themes of nationalism, love and violence. This is really rather sedate cinematic experience in comparison.
The Winter of 1905 was screened at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 on March 02 at Cine Libre Umeda. It will be screened again at T-Joy Umeda on March 10.