A modest family is destined for tragedy due to the rivalry between two teenage stepsisters. It begins when Tao Lan accidentally kills her stepsister. Seventeen years later, a female guard escorts the solitary Tao Lan, now a stranger to life outside prison, to her first painful family reunion…Read More »
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An unschooled young man, one of the countless victims of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, is labouring in the countryside when he is suddenly assigned to teach in a near-by village school. Gradually, he finds the confidence to ditch the Maoist textbook and encourage the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings. At the same time, through a series of dream-like meetings with a young cowherd, he begins to sense the possibilities of a life beyond the parameters of traditional education.Read More »
Synopsis: In this stylish musical, a CEO’s plan to take her company public hits a roadblock when an audit exposes a great deal of corruption. As a result, the stock bonus her former mentor had promised her is in jeopardy.Read More »
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In the 1980s, encouraged by the government, a large number of families leave Chinese cities to settle in the poorer regions of the country, in order to develop local industry. The film’s main character is a 19 years old girl who lives in the Guizhou province, where her parents have settled. That’s where she has grown up, where her friends are and where she first experiences love. But her father believes that their future lies in Shanghai. How can they all keep on living together when they don’t share the same dreams?Read More »
Based on the true story of a Chinese painter, Pan Yuliang (Gong Li), whose work was celebrated in Paris yet rejected at home. At fifteen years old, she was sold into prostitution. Her life changes when she marries a high official. Through her husband, she finds expression in western painting, and furthers her studies in Paris. Although highly respected in Paris, it wasn’t until after her death that she received the acceptance at home she so desperately sought. The film is directed by Huang Shuqin, a woman director famous for highlighting the influence of tradition on gender issues.Read More »
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Very much a celebration of Chinese solidarity in the face of the return of Hong Kong to their control, this costume drama begins at the turn of the century as a virginal Chinese girl flees via a raging river from being sacrificed in a religious ceremony. When she emerges, she is in Tibet where she becomes part of a local community. At the same time, a Scottish explorer and his British interpreter enter the same area and are saved from execution by a Tibetan horseman who takes them back to his tribe. Read More »
In the summer of 1974, Xing-Yu (Shu Qi) meets and falls in love with a rebel, Si-Mong. A member of the Chinese People’s Army, her comrades immediately frown on their relationship. Her leader and childhood sweetheart, Yuan, then enlists her in a plan to betray Si-Mong in exchange for a discharge so she may return home to care for her sick father. Will Xing-Yu choose country and politics over love?Read More »
After the death of her policeman father, Xiaomai (Angelababy) begins to look over his old journals filled with notes about the cases he investigated over the years. The mention of a purple scarf in the notes particularly catches her attention, prompting her to purchase a similar scarf from a mysterious website that claims to sell everything, as long as one can pay the price. Soon after, Xiaomai’s close friend (Rayza) is found dead, strangled by a purple scarf. All of this awakens Xiaomai’s memories of her childhood sweetheart Qiushou (Ethan Juan), whose mother was also strangled to death with a purple scarf by an unknown killer. Xiaomai and Qiushou grew up together and fell in love, but he suddenly disappeared from her life 15 years ago without a word. She begins to believe that Qiushou has returned and may be seeking revenge.Read More »
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Economic unrest roils central China’s Shaanxi Province: local factories are merging, thugs threaten managers, personnel records get lost, and workers are without protections such as health insurance. The police and much of society are surly. Xiao Jian, a mild young man whose father is ill, works in the family street stall doing pressing and tailoring. A laundered police-officer’s shirt goes uncollected, and Xiao Jian puts it on: it opens doors. Wearing it, he chats up a clerk, Zheng Shasha, and takes her out. He extracts fines from drivers who violate traffic laws. In these tough times, he’s not the only one with two identities. How long can he sustain it?Read More »