Most stilted dialog in the history of cinema - but intentionally so

The 1948 Chinese low-key melodrama (bet you didn't know there was such a thing) "Spring in a Small Town" is more of a curiosity than a great film, but still worth seeing once anyway - it's about the most low-budget film you can imagine, film in grainy 4:3 BW with a crappy soundtrack that jumps in and out, musical overdubs sound as if they're picked up from a mic held in front of a cheap speaker, editing is a patch job, the print is grainy and poorly lighted - all of which add to the charm of this artifact, as we have to imagine what the Chinese film industry must have been like in 1948 and then wonder how this film survived at all through the revolution and the Cultural Revolution, but here it is: a man and his wife live in a house that was once a fine estate and is now ruined from bombings, apparently, during the war; he's depressed and suicidal; she is cold to him and frustrated at the limitations of her life, her only freedom is in walking along the "city wall," another crumbling ruin out in a field by a river. In fact we never see the small town in which they live - the whole film done a very small location, with a cast of 5. Story concerns arrival of husband's best friend who, it turns out, has a past relation with the wife - and then various tensions as they try to determine whether to reignite their passion. The scene in which she visit his room at night to bring him sheets and blankets is the most stilted dialog in the history of cinema - intentionally so, totally capturing the awkwardness they feel together and the incredible repression, particularly hers. It's a good story, and I was pleased to see in the notes that it has been remade - but there's definitely a certain charm in seeing the original. It looks not 60 years old by 600 years old - from another world.