There is a lot to admire about this pointed modern-day political satire, but you’ll have to get over a few hurdles. One of them is the unnecessary length, another is the distracting use of a circular frame – a device that references Chinese art and hints at its heroine’s constrained plight, but often makes the viewer feel as if they’re peering through a keyhole. The heroine is a comically stubborn villager (a spirited, uglified Fan Bingbing) who embarks on a perverse mission to get her sham divorce overturned so that she can redivorce her cheating husband properly. He’s added insult to injury by likening her to Pan Jinlian, a literary character associated with promiscuity (misleadingly translated to Madame Bovary in the English title). These grievances are clumsily handled by a succession of self-serving, buck-passing officials, in a similar fashion to Zhang Yimou’s The Story of Qui Ju. The satirical bite dissipates a little as the story drags on, though a powerful, emotional coda makes it worth the wait.

— The Guardian

14.2GB | 02h 19m | 1920×1080 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/A2AA7ECE3ED26EB/I.Am.Not.Madame.Bovary.2016.BDRip.1080p.x264.AC3.mkv

Language(s):Chinese
Subtitles:English

The post Xiaogang Feng – Wo bu shi Pan Jin Lian AKA I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Plot summary: (from anutshellreview.blogspot.com)
Feng Xiaogang’s Assembly was the opening film at last year’s Pusan International Film Festival, and tickets were sold out in record time once they were made available online. Such is the faith (or curiosity) of the new film from the director who brought us movies like World Without Thieves, and martial arts Hamlet The Banquet. When you think of Chinese directors making a movie based out of Chinese history, you can’t help but imagine the massive amount of propaganda that get so blatantly infused into the story and especially the dialogue. But here, Feng managed to bring about a movie which goes beyond the usual ra-ra, and shows us that a movie with universal themes can also come out from what is essentially a war movie based upon China’s tumultuous era after WWII.

Assembly refers to the call of the bugle to retreat and regroup, and this is the call that Captain Gu Zidi (Zhang Hanyu) and his 47 men of the 9th Company, 3rd Batallion, 139th Regiment, are keenly listening out for, as they go about their mission in ill-equipped fashion, holding fort on a strategic plain. Sent to the frontlines for war-crimes, Captain Gu and his men, while being the best at trench warfare, find themselves severely lacking in essentials – manpower, ammunition and heavy weaponry, as they go up against the marauding forces of the Nationalist army, with their relatively superior armour. However, their mantra is old school – only the bugle will signal their fall behind, and everything else means fulfilling their mission objectives at all costs.

Ultimately, Assembly is an ambitious film. It combines drama and action, and in both aspects, doesn’t hold back in bringing about the best it probably could. Kudos go to actor Zhang Hanyu who plays Captain Gu, in what can be essentially a one man show, putting focus of his place in history and his solo fight against the system. And after watching this, you’ll probably won’t hesitate to watch another war movie coming out of China, if they meet the benchmark set by Feng Xiaogang. Recommended!

Ji.jie.hao.AKA.Assembly.2007.576p.BluRay.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2 h 3 min
Size: 	3.28 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x450 
Aspect ratio:  	2.25:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 343 kb/s
BPP: 	0.302
Audio
#1:  	Chinese 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/7D439B37BDBDFD4/Ji.jie.hao.AKA.Assembly.2007.576p.BluRay.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):Mandarin
Subtitles:English

The post Xiaogang Feng – Ji jie hao AKA Assembly (2007) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
A look at the lives of members of a Military Cultural Troupe in the 1970s.

Review:
Mixing graceful dance scenes with gruesome battle sequences, Youth presents a rose-tinted view of China’s Cultural Revolution and war with Vietnam, but its narrative about the loss of innocence of its young characters is fascinating

The seismic social and political changes in 1970s and ’80s China form the backdrop to director Feng Xiaogang’s ( I Am Not Madame Bovary ) sprawling tale of youthful longings, life-altering tragedies and enduring regrets, adapted by Chinese author Yan Geling from her semi-autobiographical novel.

Abruptly pulled from a September release in China before the Communist Party gathered for its national congress, Youth probably touches a nerve with its depiction of the Cultural Revolution’s devastating impact on ordinary families and of the horrors of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese war.

But, as the millions of cinema-goers who made it one of December’s top-grossing films in China would attest, Feng’s nostalgic coming-of-age drama about members of a People’s Liberation Army dance troupe is far less brutal in its historical assessment than its portrayal of the fickleness of young hearts.

Narrated with wistful hindsight by dancer Xiao Suizi (Elaine Zhong Chuxi), who would in time experience her own heartbreak, Youth begins with the arrival of new Beijing recruit He Xiaoping (Miao Miao), accompanied on her trip by the Chengdu performance art unit’s resident hero Liu Feng (Huang Xuan).

While the great romance between Xiaoping and Feng is flagged early, the story takes in a convoluted series of incidents before it gets there, from Xiaoping’s plight as a target of bullying and Feng’s misguided affection for a conceited girl (Yang Caiyu) in the troupe, to her psychological traumas as a nurse and his disabling wounds suffered in the Sino-Vietnamese war.

The discrepancies between dreams and reality set the elegiac tone of Youth, which features graceful scenes of gorgeous dancers alongside exceedingly gruesome battle sequences. The film also, clumsily, dashes the romantic hopes of its lead characters when the objects of their affection suddenly enter new relationships.

It may present a rose-tinted view of two of the more chaotic periods in modern Chinese history, but Youth’s conflicted narrative conveys the loss of innocence of its young characters fascinatingly. The film concludes on a heavy note of melancholy that lingers long after the end credits roll.

— South China Morning Post [Edmund Lee]

http://nitroflare.com/view/0E7ECA7F20BA0DD/Youth.2017.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC.2.0.H264-Anonymous.mkv

Language(s):Chinese
Subtitles:English, Chinese (hardcoded)

The post Xiaogang Feng – Fang hua AKA Youth (2017) first appeared on Cinema of the World.