Springtime in a Small Town (2004)

In remaking Springtime in a Small Town, about a young wife unnerved to discover that her invalid husband's visiting childhood friend is her first love, Tian Zhuangzhuang gently reinterprets Fei Mu's lyrical 1948 drama of emotional entanglement and metaphorical political change, shaping the story for contemporary tastes. In his first production since 1993's ''The Blue Kite,'' Tian switches from the original POV of the woman to that of a neutral observer. And in so doing, the filmmaker ditches political nuance in favor of the universally understandable emotions of sexual rivalry. There's a painterly translucence to this ''Springtime,'' and a mystery, too; each frame is as delicately poised and lit as a Vermeer portrait of a woman, beckoning but unknowable.