China

Synopsis
Petition Village is located behind Beijing’s South Railway Station. The inhabitants of this shantytown have come from all over China and they all share a single objective: reparation from the Chinese state. Qi’s husband, for example, died after a routine medical checkup and was immediately cremated. Qi wants to get to the bottom of the matter, but the local authorities in her village refuse to respond. And that is why she and her daughter have been camping for the last 10 years in Petition Village.Read More »

Chinese-Canadian writer-director Johnny Ma follows his 2016 feature debut, Old Stone, with this touching drama. Zhao Li is the manager of a rundown theatre on the outskirts of Chengdu, China, inhabited by a small troupe that performs the art of Sichuan opera to disinterested audiences night after night. When she receives a notice of demolition for the theatre, Zhao Li hides the news from everyone else, fearing that the threat of their home’s destruction could spell the end of their close-knit family. As she struggles to search for a new theatre for them to work and live in, elements of Sichuan opera and its fantastic characters slowly begin to seep into Zhao Li’s world.Read More »

Quote:
Filmed over five years from 1997 to 2002, Yang’s first black and white movie tells the story of Zhuzi, a young intellectual, who has consulted countless doctors over his “illness”. Without any physical symptoms pointing to a definitive diagnosis, one is led to assume that the character’s illness is far more deep-seated and psychologically driven. A central theme of Yang’s work is the urban intellectual’s psyche, the generation who is old enough to remember life before the re-opening of China’s economy, while spending their formative years in a modernizing China.Read More »

Meili is a character portrait of a young woman in much need of love.Read More »

A 19C river town is under lockdown by Qing government troops. Word has reached the emperor that a rebel group (known as the Tiandihui) has hidden its children, including the leader’s son Ermao, in the town. Who can be trusted and who is a spy? Who is the real Ermao?Read More »

A Lingering Face follows an everyman named Lei Haiyang (Pan Yueming), who has recently broken up with his girlfriend. Deciding to go to Beijing, he hitches a ride with a driver (Ma Xiaoqing) and a fellow hitchhiker, Yanzi (Li Min). Waking up from a nap, Haiyang finds the truck parked in the woods and the driver raping Yanzi. Hiding in the undergrowth, Yanzi sees Haiyang, but does not reveal his hiding position. Terrified, Haiyang runs away.Read More »

Synopsis from Women Make Movies:
A tale of two sisters living in the shadow of two Chinas, this documentary by award-winning filmmaker Marlo Poras (Mai’s America; Run Granny Run) follows Juma and Latso, young women from one of the world’s last remaining matriarchal societies. Thrust into the worldwide economic downturn after losing jobs in Beijing and left with few options, they return to their remote Himalayan village. But growing exposure to modernity has irreparably altered traditions of the Mosuo, their tiny ethnic miniority, and home is not the same. Determined to keep their family out of poverty, one sister sacrifices her educational dreams and stays home to farm, while the other leaves, trying her luck in the city. The changes test them in unexpected ways. This visually stunning film highlights today’s realities of women’s lives and China’s vast cultural and economic divides while offering rare views of a surviving matriarchy.Read More »

Quote:
Like his last film, 2008’s 24 City, Jia Zhangke’s Un Certain Regard title I Wish I Knew is a documentary/fiction hybrid about modern-day China. Where 24 City took a personal focus on the citizens of a Chinese town affected by the construction of a high-rise condominium, I Wish I Knew takes a broader view, examining the history of Shanghai as viewed from the present. It combines interviews with citizens, actors, and filmmakers with architectural shots of present-day Shanghai and footage of actress Zhao Tao wandering the city. The film is never less than gorgeous, and there’s often an intuitive and pleasing internal rhythm to how he cuts within and between shots.Read More »

In China, middle class Fang Lei only has to care for her daughter. Safe in a loveless but peaceful marriage, she spends much of her time shopping. One night, a young lover appears in her dreams. Soon Fang Lei is no longer able to separate reality from dream and regards him as her real husband.Read More »