Film Society Chinese Cinema - The Vanishing Spring Light

Date: 13 October 2014 Time: 6.15 pm

This documentary introduces us to the inhabitants of an old neighbourhood in southwest China which is undergoing urban renewal, particularly Grandma Jiang who runs an (illegal) mahjong parlour in her front room.

A powerful documentary, The Vanishing Spring Light, by Xun "Fish" Yu, is the allegorical portrait of Dujiangyan City in southwest China - home to the oldest irrigation system, a UNESCO site - by way of Grandma Jiang. While her neighborhood is on the verge of a massive gentrification, Grandma Jiang is slowly dying of the after-effects of a stroke. The movie has several long takes of frank discussions with Grandma and her children, who help her as her health deteriorates. The Vanishing Spring Light provides breezy snapshots of the community, getting on with their daily routines, well aware that that their lifestyle is on the cusp of extinction.
- Olivia Collette, Roger Ebert.com, 6 March 2012.

For more information on this film, click here.