The Story of a Small Town
小城故事

Year: 1979
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Runtime: 94 min.

Digital Color

A man (Kenny Bee) recently released from prison falls in love with a mute woman (Joan Lin) in this classic wenyi film. Wenyi, often translated as “melodrama,” refers to a tradition in Chinese cinema dating back to the 1920s. Characterized by their modern, cosmopolitan sensibility, the wenyi or “literary-art” films of 1970s Taiwan were especially popular among diasporic audiences across Asia and North America. The film’s lasting legacy, however, is its soundtrack — featuring Teresa Teng, whose theme song “Small Town Story” became one of the first major pop hits to enter Mainland China after its 1978 economic opening.

DCP. Director: Lee Hsing. Screenwriter: Chang Yung-hsiang. With: Kenny Bee, Joan Lin, Ko Hsiang-ting.

Ticket Info:
Free admission
No advance reservations
Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office
Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis
The box office opens one hour before the event

This event is part of the series "Echoes From Spring Street: The World of Sing Lee and Chinese-Language Cinema in L.A."

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies, Film and Television Archive