Crows and Sparrows

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Crows and Sparrows ★★★ Wuya Yu Maque 1949

Poor tenants of a Shanghai boardinghouse are about to lose their home when their greedy landlord decides to sell and move to Taiwan. But the advancing Red Army causes a change in plans and they're saved! Sounds politically turgid but isn't, thanks to naturalistic acting and dialog. Completed just before the revolution, the film was censored by the Nationalist Kuomintang government but cuts were restored when the Communists came to power. Mandarin with subtitles. 108m/B VHS . CH Zhao Dan, Wu Yin, Wei Heling, Daolin Sun, Li Tianji, Ouyang Yun-zhu; D: Zheng Junli; W: Zhao Dan, Zheng Junli; C: Miao Zhenhua, Hu Zhenhua; M: Wang Yunjie.