Mandarin

BeyondHollywood wrote:
Originally released back in 1986, Taiwanese drama Dark Night was based upon a novel by noted feminist writer Li Ang and was directed and scripted by Fred Tan, who previously worked as an assistant director for the legendary King Hu on the likes of Raining in the Mountain and Legend of the Mountain. Interestingly, the film was not Tan’s only literary adaptation, as in 1988 he brought Lust, Caution novelist Eileen Chang’s book Rouge of the North to the screen. Given the source material, it should come as no surprise that the film deals with themes of adultery and sexual repression, offering up a scathing depiction of the role of women in modern relationships.Read More »

“The Lianhua Film Company became the leading progressive studio of the 1930s. Symphony of Lianhua 1937 is a rarely seen showcase of short films by eight directors, many of whom later worked in Hong Kong. Cai Chusheng’s Five Little Brothers is an early cinematic exploration of children’s lives and Zhu Shilin’s contribution is one of the first Chinese horror films. Other films range from comedy to social realism.Read More »

From the BFI website:
Drama about the exploitation of a Tibetan serf and his liberation by the People’s Liberation Army. Orphaned Jampa is brought up by his grandmother until she dies when he is twelve. The serf-owner Namgyal makes him a house serf and ill-treats him. Lamka, the sister of his blacksmith friend Gezong, tells him the P.L.A. has reached Tibet. Jampa, Gezong and the P.L.A defeat the plots of Namgyal and Thugpen, the hypocritical `living buddha’ and the serfs are emancipated.Read More »

In a poor mining town in western China, stories of a father and his two children intertwine. The misfortunes of son and daughter alike unravel to illuminate the complicated relationships masked by their community’s hard exterior.Read More »

This film had a deep influence upon China in the 1980s, as it was beginning to come to terms with the Cultural Revolution.

Quote:
Evening Rain, a feature film co-directed by Wu Yonggang and Wu Yigong, is about the years of the Cultural Revolution. Qiu Shi, a well-known poet, is wronged during that political movement. He is aboard a passenger ship bound for Chongqing from Wuhan under the guard of a young man and a young woman. In the third-class cabin, there is a village girl who has sold herself to repay her family debt, a woman teacher who speaks out from a sense of justice, an old actor who has had a full taste of suffering, an old woman who is on her way to commemorate her son killed in the violent factional struggle, and a righteous young worker. Read More »

Synopsis
China walks towards the Martim Moniz district, in Lisbon. When she passes the children scream: “China, China!”. China is going to fly. To escape far away at dawn. She just wants to be happy. But China drinks her own poison. She drinks it all. Sometimes the air seems loaded with evil and the purgatory is a kindergarden.Read More »

A tale of lies and revenge. A local Kung fu master hopes to monopolise, but family in his way is protected by a great martial artist. The evil lord hires 4 local beggars all masters in their own arts (pole, swords, kicking, axe) and tells them lies about the young fighter to sour their feelings on him causing them to challenge him to a duel. But after countless fights between them they all realize that they are much better friends then enemies, until one of the fighters is sabotaged and kills the young fighter. Being mistakin for a killer the other 3 turn their backs on him and chase him off swearing revenge until they find out what the real story is. Amazing weopon work that only the venoms could show you. Another first class story line, hands down just another great venoms movie period.Read More »

Winner of the top prize at last year’s Locarno Film Festival, Yeo Siew Hua’s third feature is a clever, evocative shape-shifter that begins as a kind of dreamy noir and ends up a sober, politically incisive work of social realism. First we follow gruff, disenchanted detective Lok (Peter Yu) as he searches for Wang (Liu Xiaoyi), a missing construction worker from mainland China. We’re then ushered back in time to see Wang’s life before his disappearance—and what had seemed a typical noir scenario instead turns out to be far more in line with reality as we know it today.Read More »

A young man in southern China has killed his lover. He starts a lonely escape across the whole country towards his land of wonder, a snowy village at the northern border. Sitting at his desk in Beijing, a scriptwriter is writing that man’s story. It is through his characters that his life gains its weight, meaning and freedom. His imagination blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction. The snowy village lies on the quiet border between China and Russia. Old villagers fish under the ice, school children study English text about America. They endure the long winter nights waiting for the sun to come back…Read More »