Solving this one is murder

Hungary Presents 2002, screening today through Sunday at the Music Hall, includes Gyorgy Palfi’s “Hukkle” (Friday at 5 p.m.), which seems like an ethnographic survey of life in an ancient, sleepy farming community with only a blender or a microwave to indicate that the time is the present. There are close-ups of old machinery set in motion, of a ladybug crawling up a young woman’s chest, even time-lapse shots of flowers coming into bloom. The result is an observation of people and animals going about the rituals of everyday bucolic life in seemingly eternal harmony with nature.

“Hukkle,” however, shows its distinctiveness and humor right at the start, keying its rhythmic pace to the hiccuping of an elderly man sitting on a bench all day. After roughly 30 minutes, this droll 77-minute film begins to take on a darker tone, with a kitten fatally poisoned. “Hukkle,” however, is so elliptical it demands intense concentration or a second viewing -- or both -- to solve what becomes a unique murder mystery. (310) 446-1706.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive’s “New Chinese Cinema” opens at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Melnitz Hall’s James Bridges Theater with “Springtime in a Small Town,” Tian Zhuangzhuang’s exquisite remake of Fei Mui’s 1948 original, one of the greatest films of the remarkably diverse pre-revolutionary Chinese cinema. (See details, Page 10) “Springtime” marks the comeback of Zhuangzhuang a decade after his “Blue Kite” brought him both international acclaim and the wrath of the government for his unsparing depiction of the fate of one family from the ‘50s to the Cultural Revolution.

It is 1946, and after years in constant flight during the war, Dai Liyan (Wu Jun) has at last returned home to a small town, where his ancestral mansion stands partly damaged in a neighborhood of bombed-out ruins. He apparently is still wealthy, but Liyan, who believes he has tuberculosis, wearily observes, “My health is beyond repair, like this house.”

Everything changes, however, when his lifelong friend Zhang Zichen ( Xin Baiqing), a dashing, vigorous doctor, arrives from Shanghai for an extended visit. Zhang’s examination shows Liyan free of TB, and this gentle man’s health and spirits immediately begin to improve. There is a hitch: Zhang and Liyan’s beautiful wife, Yuwen (Hu Jingfan), are startled by the sight of one another, for 10 years earlier they had fallen in love, but it hadn’t worked out for them to marry. Yuwen has grown increasingly estranged from Liyan in their arranged marriage.

“Springtime in a Small Town” reveals with subtlety and compassion the character of aristocrats steeped in a traditional sense of honor and duty. Zhuangzhuang generates muted tension and emotion within this triangle and inspires his three stars, all newcomers, to give supple portrayals. The graceful “Springtime in a Small Town” marks the welcome return of a world-class filmmaker. (310) 206-FILM.

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Screenings

“Hukkle”

Friday, 5 p.m.

Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.

(310) 446-1706.