KwanTeo Film Archive · Work
Crows and Sparrows
乌鸦与麻雀Crows and Sparrows is a 1949 drama directed by Zheng Junli. In a Shanghai lane house, residents threatened with eviction by an official seeking to sell the property confront their precarious livelihoods and search for a shared way forward.
About the Work
Set in Shanghai in the winter of 1948, the film follows the occupants of a house appropriated by the official Hou Yibo. Its rightful owner Kong Youwen, the Xiao family and the Hua family face losing their homes. Disagreements and acts of mutual support unfold within the crowded building.
The version presented at the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival combines a 2K picture restoration with newly recorded Shanghai-dialect dialogue. Qian Cheng adapted the dialogue and provided dialect guidance; Qiao Zhen directed the dubbing, with performers including Hu Ge. The work attends to period speech and the original actors’ emotional and physical rhythms. It creates a new dub rather than recovering an original Shanghai-dialect soundtrack.
KwanTeo CineLab 2026 screened this version and hosted a conversation with Shi Chuan and Zheng Junli’s son Zheng Dali. The discussion connected the film’s historical setting with the choices involved in giving an older work a new voice.