导 演：黄健中
编 剧：姜 一
主 演：李保田 赵丽蓉 葛 优 六小龄童
梁 天 丁嘉丽 申军谊
类 型：故事片
上映时间：1991年
出 品：北京电影制片厂
香港万和影视有限公司
片 长：101分钟
Reviews of The Spring Festival
Put aside your business, sit in front of the screen and be moved by the film bit by bit.
Every scene, every article, every gesture, every frown and every smile, and even every change in camera perspective, all retain the original features of the Spring Festival culture of the Chinese nation.
—— Film and TV artist: Cheng Shu’an
The most commendatory aspect of The Spring Festival is that its description of the ordinary people and the ordinary life scenes reflects a sense of history, reality and truth.
—— Film critic: Zhang Baiqing
Plot Summary
The Spring Festival tells a tragicomedic story about the Spring Festival get-together of an ordinary family in a small rural village in the northeastern China.
On the eve of the festival, all the households celebrate the lunar New Year happily. In Cheng’s family with 13 members, the father who has earned some money and the mother who has prepared jiaozi (dumplings) await the arrival of their children and grandchildren from the city. However, in the end their hope is dashed and the old couple spends the lonely eve on their own.
On the first day of the lunar New Year, their children come back home one after another to pay their parents a New Year’s call, and the whole family gets together at last. Nevertheless, the sons and daughters come back with different intentions. The eldest daughter-in-law wants the parents to take care of her child; the eldest son-in-law attempts to extort some money from the old couple; the second son who is a postgraduate wants to obtain his parents’ economic support; the second daughter and her husband come back home to apologize for their elopement; the youngest son wants to ask for the betrothal money from the old couple for his engagement...
All contradictions in the family gather on the very day, and the Spring Festival that should be a happy occasion is observed differently.
