My Memories of Old Beijing (1983) User Reviews (3)

Three Things Impressed Me from Girl's Innocent Memory

[hooraychining · 9/10 · 2 May 2022]

That is the era we can never go back.

I am speaking my opinion purely from personal experience. There are three things that impressed me the most about this movie:

1. The cute face and hairstyle of little girl Yingzi, and her eyes are full of innocence.

2. The theme music that always appears at the right time, revealing a touch of parting emotion.

3. The slow-paced way of life in old Beijing. For example, camels and donkeys are used as means of transportation, to dig well water, etc.

Everything is the real memory of little girl Yingzi, through her innocent eyes observation, it is really full of emotion, as if it is an unreal past. But I know that those people and things did exist. The good thing is that the little girl doesn't distinguish between good and bad, so she can get close to many people. Now we are all good at value judgment and moral judgment, and it is difficult to be a quiet observer like her.

"Let the past thing pass". This is one of lines. With the lyrics of the theme music, life seems to be constantly saying goodbye to people and things in the past. Both unpleasant and beautiful things will gradually leave us. What a sadness feeling at last.

A Superb Blend of Innocence and Nostalgia

[p_radulescu · 10/10 · 27 June 2011]

The Beijing of the 1920's seen through the eyes of a little girl. The neighborhood is in the Southern part of the city, inhabited by the poor; among them some middle class people. The girl has the innocence and curiosity of each kid of that age and her eyes chronicle what's unfolding in the family, at school, on the street, in the life of the neighbors. A young woman got mad; the girl wants to see what the matter is, the mother stops her. The girl insists, and witnesses the crises of the mad woman; her husband had been executed for revolutionary activities, her little daughter had disappeared, the woman has lost her minds. Another neighbor, a young girl, is abused by her parents. A young thief is hiding in the junk behind the girl's house, they become friends. He will be caught by the police. A new brother is born and all attention at home is directed to him. The father gets sick and dies. Beyond all these dramas, there is the magic of the old city, crossed sometimes by carts pulled by donkeys, sometimes by caravans with camels, sometimes by police escorting political prisoners or thieves; and the joy of life of the little daughter. A superb blend of innocence and nostalgia: the innocence of the kid, the nostalgia of the grown up who once upon a time was a little girl. The grown up who knows that times don't come back and the old city will never be again as it was once upon a time.

It's based on an autobiographical novel written by Lin Haiyin: born in Osaka in 1918, she came with her family to Beijing at the age of five and spent there the following 25 years. In 1948 she moved to Taiwan and became a well known author. Lin Haiyin died in 2001.

A good film of post-revolution era that describes the pre-revolution era

[zzmale · 10/10 · 29 November 2003]

What gives this post-revolution era film a high score is that it is one of the earliest of the films shot in China that describes the pre-revolution era without any political bias and propaganda, a trend most could not escape.

The literal translation of the title actually is: Old stories of the southern part of the city.

For centuries, Beijing was consisted of three parts, the rich northern part of the town was consisted of northeastern part where aristocrats and royalties mainly resided, and the northwestern part where well to to merchants and landlords mainly resided. The southern part, an area that is equal in size of the northeastern and northwestern parts combined, is the place where most middle class and lower class resided. The story was told in the experience of a little girl of southern part of the city.