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Beautiful but totally inert, this remake of a 1948 movie is an odd way for The Last Eunuch director Tian Zhuangzhuang to end his 10-year hiatus from filmmaking. But having been blacklisted by the authorities over his Mao-baiting The Blue Kite, one can hardly blame him for playing safe.
Set in a country town in 1946, Springtime might best be described as a Chinese take on The Postman Always Rings Twice. A doctor pays a visit to an old friend from college, only to find him suffering from a mystery ailment. Not only that, but he's also married to the doc's childhood sweetheart, now a bored young wife looking to escape her humdrum existence...
It's a promising set-up, but Zhuangzhuang is more concerned with probing the intimate minutiae of human relationships than building up a narrative head of steam. Like the drinking games that occupy its second act, Springtime goes on far too long, far too slowly, for far too little gain.
Ex-Bethesda dev turned indie says "good things often happen by accident," like that time Skyrim players convinced themselves the RPG's foxes were leading them to treasure
Palworld dev says the studio went dark for months because "the team was getting burnt out from all the social media stuff, I was getting burnt out, our CEO was under attack in Japan"
Metaphor: ReFantazio had to dial back an early battle system inspired by a notoriously brutal 2003 JRPG, because 20 years later, players found it "irrational" and "just not fun"
