Gustavus Library Movie Guide: Chinese Cinema

"This revised and updated new edition provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of cinema in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as to diasporic and transnational Chinese film-making, from the beginnings of cinema to the present day. Chapters by leading international scholars are grouped in thematic sections addressing key historical periods, film movements, genres, stars and auteurs, and the industrial and technological contexts of transnational Chinese cinemas." - from the publisher

"heldon Lu's wide-ranging new book investigates how filmmakers and visual artists from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have envisioned China as it transitions from a socialist to a globalized capitalist state. It examines how the modern nation has been refashioned and re-imagined in order to keep pace with globalization and transnationalism.At the heart of Lu's analysis is a double movement in the relationship between nation and transnationalism in the Chinese post-socialist state. He considers the complexity of how the Chinese economy is integrated in the global capitalist system while also remaining a repressive body politic with mechanisms of control and surveillance. He explores the interrelations of the local, the national, the subnational, and the global as China repositions itself in the world.Lu considers examples from feature and documentary film, mainstream and marginal cinema, and a variety of visual arts: photography, painting, digital video, architecture, and installation. His close case studies include representations of class, masculinity and sexuality in contemporary Taiwanese and Chinese cinema; the figure of the sex worker as a symbol of modernity and mobility; and artists' representations of Beijing at the time of the 2008 Olympics." - from the publisher

"In Revisiting Women’s Cinema, Lingzhen Wang ponders the roots of contemporary feminist stagnation and the limits of both commercial mainstream and elite minor cultures by turning to socialist women filmmakers in modern China. She foregrounds their sociopolitical engagements, critical interventions, and popular artistic experiments, offering a new conception of socialist and postsocialist feminisms, mainstream culture, and women’s cinema. Wang highlights the films of Wang Ping and Dong Kena in the 1950s and 1960s and Zhang Nuanxin and Huang Shuqin in the 1980s and 1990s to unveil how they have been profoundly misread through extant research paradigms entrenched in Western Cold War ideology, post-second-wave cultural feminism, and post-Mao intellectual discourses. Challenging received interpretations, she elucidates how socialist feminism and culture were conceptualized and practiced in relation to China’s search not only for national independence and economic development but also for social emancipation, proletarian culture, and socialist internationalism. Wang calls for a critical reevaluation of historical materialism, socialist feminism, and popular culture to forge an integrated emancipatory vision for future transnational feminist and cultural practices." - from the publisher

"In China on Screen, Chris Berry and Mary Farquhar, leaders in the field of Chinese film studies, explore more than one hundred years of Chinese cinema and nation. Providing new perspectives on key movements, themes, and filmmakers, Berry and Farquhar analyze the films of a variety of directors and actors, including Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, Wong Kar-wai, and Ang Lee. They argue for the abandonment of 'national cinema' as an analytic tool and propose 'cinema and the national' as a more productive framework. With this approach, they show how movies from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora construct and contest different ideas of Chinese nation - as empire, republic, or ethnicity, and complicated by gender, class, style, transnationalism, and more. Among the issues and themes covered are the tension between operatic and realist modes, male and female star images, transnational production and circulation of Chinese films, the image of the good foreigner - all related to different ways of imagining nation. Comprehensive and provocative, China on Screen is a crucial work of film analysis." - from the publisher

"This volume features new work on cinema in early twentieth-century Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Republican China. Looking beyond relatively well-studied cities like Shanghai, these essays foreground cinema's relationship with imperialism and colonialism and emphasize the rapid development of cinema as a sociocultural institution. These essays examine where films were screened; how cinema-going as a social activity adapted from and integrated with existing social norms and practices; the extent to which Cantonese opera and other regional performance traditions were models for the development of cinematic conventions; the role foreign films played in the development of cinema as an industry in the Republican era; and much more." - from the publisher

"Since the early 1990s, while mainland China's state-owned movie studios have struggled with financial and ideological constraints, an exciting alternative cinema has developed. Dubbed the 'Urban Generation,' this new cinema is driven by young filmmakers who emerged in the shadow of the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. What unites diverse directors under the 'Urban Generation' rubric is their creative engagement with the wrenching economic and social transformations underway in China. Urban Generation filmmakers are vanguard interpreters of the confusion and anxiety triggered by the massive urbanization of contemporary China. This collection brings together some of the most recent original research on this emerging cinema and its relationship to Chinese society. The contributors analyze the historical and social conditions that gave rise to the Urban Generation, its aesthetic innovation, and its ambivalent relationship to China's mainstream film industry and the international film market." - from the publisher

"Interviews with Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and other Chinese directors about their work & the ways it has impacted both on the film industry in China as well as on the world scene."I always compare filmmaking to cooking. Shooting is like buying the groceries. You buy all kinds of ingredients and the better ingredients you get, the better chance you have of making the movie you want."―Ang Lee, from Speaking in Images. Speaking in Images offers an engaging and rare collection of interviews with the directors who have changed the face of Chinese and international cinema. Michael Berry's discussions with such directors as Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Zhang Yimou (Hero), Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine), Stanley Kwan (Lan Yu), Tsai Ming-Liang (Vive l'Amour), Edward Yang (Yi Yi), and Hou Hsiao-hsien (Flowers of Shanghai) offer an eclectic and comprehensive portrait of contemporary Chinese cinema. In interviews that capture each filmmaker's unique vision, the subjects discuss their formative years, the ideas and influences that shaped their work, film aesthetics, battles with censors and studios, the mingling of commercial and art film, and the future of Chinese cinema in a transnational context. Berry's introduction to the collection provides an overview of Chinese cinema in the second half of the twentieth century, placing the directors and their work in a wider historical and cultural context." - from the publisher

"This groundbreaking book presents a critical introduction to the cultural and political dimensions of contemporary Chinese cinema. Leading Western and Chinese scholars trace the changing dynamics of Chinese film culture since the early 1990s as it moves away from underground and toward independence in the new century. Yet as the rich case studies illustrate, the sheer variety of alternative film culture itself provides sufficient opportunities for different-at times contradictory-configurations of cinematic products. Drawing on vigorous interdisciplinary scholarship, the book investigates the objects of its study from various methodological perspectives, ranging from historical and literary to sociological and ethnographic. In addition to offering critical readings of specific texts, this book explores alternative film culture through personal interviews, on-site observations, and media interrogations, from traditional print media to the visual media of film, television, and video, including the new digital media of the Internet. The contributors also consider the flourishing independent documentary filmmaking scene, highlighting a crucial part of alternative film that has been previously obscured by an almost exclusive attention on the fifth- and sixth-generation directors of fictional movies. With its fresh and knowledgeable analysis of Chinese underground and independent filmmaking, this book will be essential reading for all those interested in a society caught between socialism and global currents." - from the publisher

"In Shanghai, the police are baffled by a cunning thief known as the Lizard, a modern day Robin Hood who steals from the corrupt upper class and gives to the poor. A corrupt police chief discovers that his adversary is also a brilliant martial arts expert able to climb walls just like his namesake. Packed with combat mayhem and witty double crosses."

"Two rival swordsmen in imperial China, poncho-clad Fu Hung-Hsueh and Yen nan-Fei vie with a power-hungry villain for the deadly Peacock Dart and fend off waves of expert killers during their journey."

"Three Times is a Hou Hsiao masterpiece. A rapturous and beautiful love story set in three different eras, a pool hall in 1966, a 1911 brothel and present day Taipei. Stylistic and true to life of the times, Hou Hsiao Hsien brings to life the culture of each period as the tale unfolds. Critically acclaimed for its wisdom, cineamatic style and storytelling it is a must see for any true lover of cinema." - from Amazon.com

"Back with his first film in 8 years, legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien wowed this year's Cannes Film Festival (where he won Best Director) with his awe-inspiring THE ASSASSIN - a wondrous take on the traditional wuxia film. The story is simple, if elusive - in 9th-century China, Nie Yinniang is a young woman who was abducted in childhood from a decorated general and raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts. After 13 years of exile, she is returned to the land of her birth as an exceptional assassin, with orders to kill her betrothed husband-to-be. She must confront her parents, her memories, and her long-repressed feelings in a choice to sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins. Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN is a martial arts film like none made before it." - from Well Go Entertainment

"A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy." - from IMDB.com

"In 1920's China, women had few options. So following the death of her father, Songlian, a beautiful nineteen-year-old college student agrees to marry a wealthy nobleman. She is to be wife number four at his estate, where daily life revolves around an ancient family custom: the master raises a red lantern outside the house of the wife with whom he desires to spend the night. On the surface, there is harmony between the wives, but trapped inside their gilded cages, with nothing to do but compete for their husband's favor, the four women are drawn into a web of petty rivalries that soon escalate into treachery."

"In a small Chinese village a farmer (Qing Lai) and his chief quarrel over land. When Qing Lai is injured by the chief, who kicks him in the groin, Qing's wife Qiu Ju begins a quixotic odyssey that takes her from her small village to the provincial capital. She is relentless in her one-woman crusade to wreak a simple justice from the proud Chief ... she wants him to apologize."

"In a smoky gambling den in 1940s China, a drunken young man runs through his family's fortune, losing their ancestral home and all their possessions. This staggering loss proves to be their salvation and the first step in an odyssey of survival that will take them through war and revolution, love and loss, tragedy and triumph. Through the terrors of China's civil war, the passions of the communist takeover, the betrayals of Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward and the tragic mistakes of the Cultural Revolution, their lives unfold across four decades of momentous change." Based on the novel by Yu Hua.

"In a remote mountain village, the teacher must leave for a month, and the mayor can find only a 13-year old girl, Wei Minzhi, to substitute. The teacher leaves one stick of chalk for each day and promises her an extra 10 yuan if there's not one less student when he returns. Within days, poverty forces the class troublemaker, Zhang Huike, to leave for the city to work. Minzhi, possessed of a stubborn streak, determines to bring him back. She enlists the 26 remaining pupils in earning money for her trip. She hitches to Jiangjiakou City and begins her search. The boy, meanwhile, is there, lost and begging for food. Minzhi's stubbornness may be Huike and the village school's salvation." - from IMDB.com

"From the award-winning director of such acclaimed films as Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou comes aromantic drama whose story is as beautiful as the cinematography. THE ROAD HOME will take you on anunforgettable journey filled with romance, culture and tradition. When his father dies, Luo Yushengreturns from the city to his childhood village where his father was the much-revered local teacher.But what begins as a short trip to bury his father becomes much more when he learns his mother wants a traditional burial for her beloved husband. She wants to have him carried by foot, honoring the belief that a body returned this way will never forget the road home. As Yusheng enlists the men needed to fulfill her wishes, the story of his parents' love affair unfolds. In the days of arranged marriages, he learns theirs was the first based on love." - from Amazon.com

"With supernatural skill and no fear a nameless soldier embarks on a mission of revenge against the fearsome army that massacred his people. Now, to achieve the justice he seeks, he must take on the empire's most ruthless assassins and reach the enemy he has sworn to defeat."

"During the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, a secret organization called 'The House of the Flying Dagger' rises and opposes the government. Leo is a police officer who sends officer Jin to investigate a young dancer named Mei, claiming that she has ties to the 'Flying Daggers' organization. Leo ends up arresting Mei, only to have Jin break her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization. But things are far more complicated than they seem."

"China, Later Tang dynasty, 10th century. On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor returns unexpectedly with his second son, Prince Jai. His pretext is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress, this seems disingenuous. For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan, her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan, the Imperial Doctor's daughter. Meanwhile, faithful son Prince Jai, grows worried over the Empress's health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums. The Emperor harbors equally clandestine plans and the Imperial Doctor is the only one privy to his machinations. When the Emperor senses a looming threat, he relocates the doctor's family from the Palace to a remote area. They are attacked by mysterious assassins and Chan and her mother are forced back to the palace. Their return sets off a tumultuous sequence of dark surprises. Amid the glamour and grandeur of the festival, ugly secrets are revealed. As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, thousands of golden armored warriors charge the palace."

"With SHADOW, director Zhang Yimou (HERO, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) once again pushes the boundaries of wuxia action to create a film like no other, masterfully painting a canvas of inky blacks and greys punctuated with bursts of color from the blood of the defeated. In a kingdom ruled by a young and unpredictable king, the military commander has a secret weapon: a ;shadow', a look-alike who can fool both his enemies and the King himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the King does not want." - from Well Go Entertainment

"A haunting, evocative film set in the barren wilderness of Northern Shaanxi province in 1939. The life of a fourteen year-old peasant girl is changed forever by the arrival of a communist soldier sent out to collect folk songs for the use of revolutionary armies.." - from Amazon.com

"The fifty year friendship and love between two Beijing-style opera singers--from boyhood to middle age--becomes intertwined with their on stage roles. Dieye (Leslie Cheung) acts the female role of "Concubine" and Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) as the "King". Dieye feels betrayed when Xiaolou marries Juxian (Gong Li) and the two no longer perform together. During the Cultural Revolution, in a publicly humiliating re-education "struggle session" by the Red Guard, Xiaolou politically denounces the effeminate Dieye, who then exposes Juxian's past as a courtesan, causing her to suicide. A decade later following a period of liberalization, Dieye and Xiaolou are once again able to perform their signature opera in their traditional roles. Set against the backdrop of China's tumultuous social change, from the warlord era through the Cultural Revolution, it explores issues of gender, sexual, and political identity."

"From the acclaimed director of Farewell, My Concubine comes THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN, a visually stunning epic exploring the devastating price one country pays for peace and one man pays for power. Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, has one driving ambition: to unify China's seven kingdoms into one magnificent empire. Impressed by her lover's convictions, Lady Zhao helps Ying Zheng concoct an assassination plot that would justify the conquest of Qin's most powerful enemy. When Ying Zheng's peaceful mission explodes into a brutal holocaust, a disillusioned Lady Zhao is forced to question her loyalty and her lover's destiny." - from Amazon.com

"Hoping for a brighter future, shy but talented violinist Xlaochun and his father move to Beijing for a prestigious music school, and he explores a new world unlike any known. He meets new and demanding teachers, discovers true friendship, tastes the sweetness and bitterness of his puppy love and comes to an understanding what true meaning music is. And though, with his world splitting in two and everyone's telling what they want for him, he is figuring out what he wants for himself." - from Amazon.com

"A new epic fantasy set in China's mythical past, 'The Promise' is a visually stunning tale of passion that unfolds against a backdrop of war as a beautiful and mysterious princess becomes the object of affection for three very different men - a powerful Duke, a brave general and a lowly slave. As passions spark and egos clash, lives will be ruined and lovers spurned and no one will ever be the same." - from Amazon.com

"Dig in! This 'funny and poignant comedy of manners' (The New York Times), directed and co-written by Oscar nominee* Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility), is an absolutely delicious feast! Winner of the Berlin Film Festival's prestigious Golden Bear, The Wedding Banquet is 'top-notch comedy' (Leonard Maltin)! Successful New Yorker Wai Tung and his partner Simonare blissfully happy, except for one thing: Wai Tung's conservative Taiwanese parents are determined he find a nice girl to marry! To please themand get a tax breakhe arranges a sham marriage to Wei Wei, a sexy go-getter in need of a green card. But when his family swoops down for the extravaganza, Wai Tung would do well to remember that at a traditional Chinese wedding banquet, sexual repression takes the night off!." - from Amazon.com

"From celebrated director Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility) comes a movieso visually stunning that it spans the 'beautiful balance of elements mellow, harmonious and poignantly funny' (The Washington Post). This 'charming study of love, family and tradition' (Leonard Maltin) 'tickles both mind and body' (Movie Reviews UK). Trouble is cooking for widower and master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) who's about to discover that no matter how dazzling and delicious his culinary creations might be, they're no match for the libidinous whims of his three beautiful but rebellious daughters. A master in the kitchen, Chu is at a loss when it comes to the ingredients of being a father. Every Sunday, he whips up a delicacy of dishes for his ungrateful daughters, who are so self-consumed that they don't see his attempt at showing them love gastronomically.So, as relationships sour and communications break down, Chu concocts a sure-fire recipe that will bring his family back together: He creates his own love affair to rival his daughters' affections!" - from Amazon.com

"Two master warriors (Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh) are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocrat (Zhang Ziyi) prepares for an arranged marriage, but soon reveals her superior fighting talents and her deeply romantic past. As each warrior battles for justice, they come face to face with their worst enemy - and the inescapable, enduring power of love. Set against 19th-century China's breathtaking landscape, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON is the action-packed, box office smash from acclaimed director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm) featuring stunning martial arts choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix)." - from Amazon.com

"Directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain is a sweeping epic that explores the lives of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection. The complications, joys and heartbreak they experience provide a testament to the endurance and power of love. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal deliver emotionally charged, remarkably moving performances in 'a movie that is destined to become one of the great classics of our time' (Clay Smith, The Insider)." - from Amazon.com

"Embark on the adventure of a lifetime in this visual masterpiece from Oscar winner Ang Lee, based on the best-selling novel. After a cataclysmic shipwreck, young Pi Patel finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with the only other survivor - a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Bound by the need to survive, the two are cast on an epic journey that must be seen to be believed." - from Amazon.com

"The long-awaited retrospective from the internationally renowned film director celebrated for his visually lush and atmospheric films. Wong Kar Wai is known for his romantic and stylish films that explore--in saturated, cinematic scenes--themes of love, longing, and the burden of memory. His style reveals a fascination with mood and texture, and a sense of place figures prominently. In this volume, the first on his entire body of work, Wong Kar Wai and writer John Powers explore Wong's complete oeuvre in the locations of some of his most famous scenes. The book is structured as six conversations between Powers and Wong (each in a different locale), including the restaurant where he shot In the Mood for Love and the snack bar where he shot Chungking Express. Discussing each of Wong's eleven films--from As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild to 2046 and The Grandmaster --the conversations also explore Wong's trademark themes of time, nostalgia, and beauty, and their roots in his personal life. The first book by Wong Kar Wai, and the first comprehensive look at his oeuvre, this stunning, lavishly illustrated volume is as evocative as walking into one of Wong's lush films." - from the publisher

"The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu Wai), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out food stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas & the Papas’ 'California Dreamin’ into tokens of romantic longing." - from Criterion.com

"Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung Man Yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bing, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past two decades of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career." - from Criterion.com

"Wong Kar Wai’s loose sequel to In the Mood for Love combines that film’s languorous air of romantic longing with a dizzying time-hopping structure and avant-sci-fi twist. Tony Leung Chiu Wai reprises his role as writer Chow Mo-Wan, whose numerous failed relationships with women who drift in and out of his life (and the one who goes in and out of room 2046, down the hall from his apartment) inspire the delirious futuristic love story he pens. 2046’s dazzling fantasy sequences give Wong and two of his key collaborators—cinematographer Christopher Doyle and editor/costume designer/production designer William Chang Suk Ping—license to let their imaginations run wild, propelling the sumptuous visuals and operatic emotions skyward toward the sublime." - from Criterion.com

"Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, THE GRANDMASTER is an epic action feature inspired by the life and times of the legendary Kung FU master, Ip Man who mentored Bruce Lee. The story spans the tumultuous Republican era that followed the fall of China's last dynasty, a time of chaos, division and war that was also the golden age of Chinese martial arts. Filmed in a range of stunning locations that include the snow-swept landscapes of Northeast China and the subtropical South, THE GRANDMASTER features virtuoso performances by some of the greatest stars of contemporary Asian cinema, including Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang." - from Amazon.com

"Popular TV host Yan Shouyi (Ge You) has it all: a great job, a loyal wife and a gorgeous young lover. He depends on his cell phone to keep his world organized. His life starts unraveling when he forgets his cell phone at home and his wife answers a call from his lover. His phone, once his most trusted accessory, betrays him and sends him deeper and deeper in a world of deception and lies."

"Bo (Andy Lau), a master pickpocket, and Li (Rene Li), a femme fatale grifter are partners in crime and passion. The couple swindle their way across China until one day Li suddenly decides to call it quits. It is at this crossroad in their lives and relationship that they run into Fu Gen, a naive and wealthy peasant in a train station and begin a journey that will alter their fates forever."

"Scheming royals and other officials seek to conquer empires and consolidate power to form a single omnipotent dynasty. Meanwhile, a legendary empress who has the fighting skills unparalleled by any man, harbors forbidden desires for her stepson. Set in the Age of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, tells the story of a royal court in turmoil including passion, deceit, revenge, overpowering beauty, and greed."

"Epic war film, based on real events, set during and after the Chinese civil war. Gu Zidi (Hanyu Zang), Captain of the Ninth Company of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) leads his 46 men into one of the bloodiest battles of the Huaihai Campaign in 1948. His orders are to fight the Nationalist Army (KMT) until he hears the bugle call for retreat. After the ammunition runs out and his men are dropping like flies, the bugle has still not sounded. When his dying Lieutenant insists that he has heard the call, Gu is still not convinced and orders his remaining men to fight on. Eventually all are dead bar Gu. As doubt and guilt seep into his mind he marches straight into the enemy's trench where his life is spared. Waking in hospital a few days later he has lost his identity papers. With no other survivors from his company, the 46 men who gave up their lives are simply listed as missing. Determined to prove his men's bravery, the Captain embarks on a journey in search of the truth about the bugle call."

"Newly rich inventor Qin puts out a personal ad hoping to find a relationship, and after a string of bizarre encounters and bad dates, he finally strikes a chord with the beautiful Smiley. Feeling she's out of his league, Qin hesitates to further approach her and instead, develops an accidental friendship with her. As they spend more time together, they find companionship in each other, with Smiley lighting up Qin Fen's once dull and repetitive life."

"Follows a family who became victims in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. The father, Fang Daqiang, was crushed dead while trying to rescue his twin children, Fang Deng and Fang Da, who were trapped in the house. Unable to save both kids, the mother, Li Yuanni, is forced to sacrifice Fang Deng for her feeble younger brother Fang Da, a decision that proved agonizing for the entire family. Though left behind as dead, the little girl miraculously survives, unbeknownst to her family."

"A father prepares to hand his 112-mile mail route over to his son. At dawn, the two embark on the three-day round trip on foot. Traveling along the rugged landscape of wind-blown hills, craggy rocks, and winding rivers, the son learns not only about the isolated mountain to which they deliver mail but also about his own father."

"A love story that should not have happened. But the Great Cultural Revolution fathered it. As memorable as Romeo and Juliet, their love tied with the same intrusion from their families ¨C the hatred. Until one day, they watched Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It inspires them. It gives their juiceless love story the hope for fruit. It brings them the determination to bridge through time setting aside the hatred. The same gives them a wait of 12 years. 12 years of changing time, changing era. Friends come and go. Songs sang become old. How much longer for their love can they hold? How much longer for their love with beautiful memory and unforgettable days can they hold?" - from IMDB.com

"With more than 30 premieres and 20 awards from top film festivals around the world, BLACK COAL, THIN ICE is the story of a disgraced cop and his partner, still seeking the truth behind the high-profile murders that ended their careers - because it seems the killer is at it again..." - from Amazon.com

"From acclaimed director Diao Yinan, THE WILD GOOSE LAKE is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his 2014 Berlinale winning neo-noir BLACK COAL, THIN ICE. Toppling box office records in Diao’s native China, THE WILD GOOSE LAKE 'cements his status as a master filmmaker with another ingenious crime epic' (Little White Lies). When small-time mob leader Zhou Zenong (Chinese superstar Hu Ge) accidentally kills a cop, a dead-or-alive bounty is placed on his head, forcing him on the lam from both the police as well as dangerous gangsters out for the reward. Hiding out in China’s densely populated (and deeply divided) Wuhan province, Zhou becomes entangled with a beautiful, enigmatic woman, who has mysterious intentions of her own. Featuring gorgeous, neon-drenched cinematography and bursts of shocking, expertly choreographed action, THE WILD GOOSE LAKE is 'spellbinding' (Rolling Stone), 'brilliant' (Indiewire) and 'downright Hitchcockian' (AV Club)." - from Film Movement

"Jia Zhangke is praised as 'the most internationally prominent and celebrated figure of the Six-Generation of Chinese filmmakers'. This book provides an examination the content and forms of Jia’s featured films and analyzes their merits and faults. Jia’s films often narrate the lives of ordinary Chinese people against the backdrop of the political-economic changes. The author conducts an in-depth analysis of how this change have ferociously impinged upon the characters’ living conditions since China integrated itself with the world economy in the high tide of accelerated globalization since the 1970s. The author focuses on discussing the 'politics of dignity' expressed by Jia’s allegorical renditions to explore the director’s political unconsciousness and cultural-political notions. This book maps ten of Jia Zhangke’s films onto three major themes: Jia’s filmmaking and China in the market society; truth claims and political unconscious; 'post-socialist modernity' in the age of globalization. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese film studies, as well as other disciplines, such as political science, sociology, anthropology, etc." - from the publisher

"Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke is an extended dialogue between film scholar Michael Berry and the internationally acclaimed Chinese filmmaker. Drawing from extensive interviews and public talks, this volume offers a portrait of Jia's life, art, and approach to filmmaking. Jia and Berry's conversations range from Jia's childhood and formative years to extensive discussions of his major narrative films, including such classics as Xiao Wu, Platform, The World, Still Life, and A Touch of Sin. Jia gives a first-hand account of his influences, analyzes the Chinese film industry, and offers his thoughts on everything from film music and working with actors to cinematography and screenwriting. From industry and economics to art and politics, Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke represents the single most comprehensive document of the director's candid thoughts on the art and challenges of filmmaking." - from the publisher

"Spans the turbulent 1980s by following four performers in the state-run Peasant Culture Group. Based in Fenyang, these 'art workers' praise the late Chairman Mao with approved revolutionary classics. When an 'open door' cultural policy is instituted, China begins to move toward Western-influenced consumer capitalism."

"Looks at the loves, friendships and desperate dreams of the twenty-somethings from China's remote provinces who come to live and work in World Park, a sprawling Disney-like entertainment park in a Beijing suburb featuring lavish shows and scaled-down replicas of world landmarks. The film centers on a young woman dancer, Tao (Zhao Tao), whose entire universe seems to begin and end at the complex. Along with her boyfriend, security guard Taisheng (Chen Taishen), Tao yearns for a better life but can barely articulate much less envision what a life beyond this peculiarly conceived simulacrum might look like."

Still life: "In Still life, great changes have come to the town of Fengjie due to the construction of the Three Gorges hydro project on the Yangtze River. Countless families that had lived there for many generations have had to relocate to other cities. Fengjie's old town, which has a 2000-year history, has been torn down and submerged forever." Dong: "Jia Zhangke's first documentary film capturing painter Liu Xiaodong's creation of Hot bed no. 1 and no. 2, a series oil paintings using as models eleven local construction workers in Fengjie, Sichuan, China and eleven tropical women in Bangkok, Thailand."

"24 City chronicles the dramatic closing of a once-prosperous state-owned factory in Chengdu, southwest China and its conversion into a sprawling luxury apartment complex. Three generations, eight characters: old workers, factory executives and yuppies, their stories melt into the History of China." - from Amazon.com

"Shanghai's past and present flow together in Jia Zhangke's poetic and poignant documentary, a portrait of this fast-changing port city. Restoring censored images and filling in forgotten facts, Jia provides an alternative version of twentieth-century China's fraught history as reflected through life in the Yangtze city. He builds his narrative through a series of eighteen interviews with people from all walks of life."

"A 'brilliant exploration of violence and corruption in contemporary China' (Jon Frosch, the Atlantic), a TOUCH OF SIN was inspired by four shocking (and true) events that forced the world's fastest growing economy into a period of self-examination. Written and directed by master filmmaker Jia Zhangke (The World, Still Life), 'one of the best and most important directors in the world' (Richard Brody, the New Yorker), this daring, poetic and grand-scale film focuses on four characters, each living in different provinces, who are driven to violent ends. An angry miner, enraged by widespread corruption in his village, decides to take justice into his own hands. A rootless migrant discovers the infinite possibilities of owning a firearm. A young receptionist, who dates a married man and works at a local sauna, is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. And a young factory worker goes from one discouraging job to the next, only to face increasingly degrading circumstances." - from Amazon.com

"Mainland master Jia Zhangke ('A Touch Of Sin') scales new heights with Mountains May Depart. Starring the luminous Zhao Tao, the film is both an intimate drama and a decades-spanning epic about how China's capitalist experiment has affected the lives of one splintered family, leaping in time from the past to the present to the speculative near-future. Jia's new film is an intensely moving study of how China's economic boom and the culture of materialism it has spawned has affected the bonds of family, tradition, and love." - from Amazon.com

"Qiao (Zhao Tao) lives in a depressed mining town. Her boyfriend, Bin (Liao Fan), is a dashing gangster who works for a corrupt property developer. After his boss is murdered, Bin ascends in rank within the Jianghu (a criminal brotherhood) and finds himself vulnerable to rival hostilities. When Bin and Qiao are arrested, she makes a fateful decision: she takes the blame to save Bin. After five years in prison, she emerges to find her world has transformed." - from Amazon.com

"When Beijing journalist Ga Yu arrives in a remote Tibetan village, he immediately finds himself embedded in a relentless manhunt across the barren waste lands of Kekexili. Acting without the Chinese government's approval, this ragtag group of impoverished vigilantes has sworn to capture or kill the poachers responsible for decimating the sacred antelope of Kekexili."

"On December 9, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to the Chinese capital of Nanking, beginning a reign of terror that killed as many as 300,000 civilians - an infamous tragedy now referred to as the Rape of Nanking. The first big-budget fiction film by the Chinese to deal with this seminal event in their modern history, CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH is a visceral, heartbreaking portrait of life during wartime, and an unforgettable masterpiece of contemporary world cinema." - from Amazon.com

"A famous Chinese story about a young couple who consummate their marriage without the approval of their parents." - IMDB.com

Silent film with orchestral score added upon re-release. The film originally consisted of 10 film reels of which only 5 survive.

"In Shanghai, a young woman (Lingyu Ruan) can support her baby boy only by turning to prostitution. In avoiding the police, the young woman comes under the inadvertent protection of a criminal boss who assaults her, then coerces her to work for him. Brutally forced to continue street walking, the woman nevertheless begins saving money secretly in order to send her son to a good school. When the boy is of age, his mother realizes her dream, until a teacher begins an investigation into her past." - from RottenTomatoes.com

Ma lu tian shi: "Upon arriving in Shanghai, two sisters are coerced into a corrupt environment in the poorest part of the city. A neighbor tries to help them escape from the dregs of society. This classic film was loosely based on Frank Borzage's silent classic 'Seventh heaven""--Container

Zi mei hua: "Twin girls separated at birth are reunited when the one raised in poverty becomes a servant in the household of her sister, now the pampered wife of a warlord general"--Container

Da lu: "Six friends decide to 'head north' and become involved in the construction of a highway crucial for the Chinese Army. A hymn to the solidarity necessary for China to move ahead (and defeat the enemy), [the film] shows its young protagonists only discovering who they are when the become part of collective action"--Container

Ti yu huang hou: "An athletic village girl comes to Shanghai, where she discovers the true nature of competition and love"--Container

Empress Wu Zetian: Empress Wu rose to power after the decline of the Tang Dynasty and ruled when women were still bound by tradition.

Dream of the Red Chamber: One of the earliest filmed versions of the great Chinese novel.

" ... the first feature length animated film produced in China." "The Monkey King and his friends journey to the West and reach Fire Mountain, where they are unable to pass. They learn that a special fan can quench the flames of the mountain, however, the fan belongs to Princess Iron Fan and she will not willingly lend it to them."

"Hailed as the finest Chinese film of all time, Spring in a Small Town is an intimate work of cinematic poetry that shows five people struggling to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of a war. A married woman’s humdrum life in a small town changes when her former sweetheart returns after a decade’s absence to visit his old friend, her ailing husband. Her voiceover creates a gripping psychological drama, even as Fei Mu’s lyrical cinematography shows people hesitating at a moment of uncertainty, amidst an environment of ruins. Tian Zhuangzhuang directed a remake of this film in 2002, known by the English title Springtime in a Small Town." - ChineseFilmClassics.com

"A film about China's first all-woman Red Army unit. In the 1930's, during the Chinese Civil War, a slave girl runs away from a cruel landlord and becomes a soldier in the Red Army. She helps lead a detachment of women soldiers in battle against Nationalist forces, including her former master, whom she personally captures and brings to justice."

"The anti-Ching patriots, under the guidance of Ho Kuang-han, have secretly set up their base in Canton, disguised as school masters. During a brutal Manchu attack, Lui Yu-te, one of Ho's pupils, manages to escape and devotes himself to learning the martial arts in order to seek revenge. In a short period of time he masters the deadly use of his fists, feet and palms, along with such weapons as swords, sticks, and lances. With his learning complete, he takes on the Manchus." - from IMDB.com

"A young man named Qu Xinde invites his girfriend to have a pleasure-boat tour during which they have their engagement photo taken. Unexpectedly a chapter of farces ensues as the young man pays little attention to public morality. The girlfriend sees through her fallacious boyfriend and tears the photo in two and leaves him."

"A love story between a Chinese-American teenager and the son of a high-ranking cadre in the Chinese military, set against the scenic wonder of Lushan Mountain during China's Cultural Revolution."

"An intellectual looks back in regret at his story of lost love. Touching on identity, poverty, love and politics, this is more than a simple love story." Based on the short story by Lu Xun.

"A film about a film set in the period of the Cultural Revolution in China, and again ten years later, with several possibilities for the ending scenes. The film revolves around a young couple, one an auto mechanic who later goes blind, and the other a shy woman who had hoped to go to music school."

"In old Beijing, the teahouse was the center of the community, and a microcosm of Chinese society. Spanning sixty years and three generations, a touching portrayal of China, from the fall of an ancient empire to the rise of the communist movement is portrayed."

"A young man abandoned his girl friend in order to seek for a better life in the city. However, he ended up getting nothing and when he was sent back to the village, his girl friend was already married to someone else."

"A technical consultant-interpreter on a major Sino-German civil engineering project loses his job when a telegram he's sent to a friend regarding a missing chess piece is mistaken for a subversive missive." - from TurnerClassicMovies.com

"A satire on how a translator's career is hampered when his reference to a chess-piece gets mistaken to be referring to a weapon."

"Sun Wukong, who is known in the West as the Monkey King, is the main character in the classical Chinese epic novel, "Journey to the West". In the novel, he accompanies the monk Xuanzang on the journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India. Sun Wukong was known to have incredible strength and speed, as well as have magical powers and be able to perform spells that can command the wind, and battle against evil spirits. This is a beloved story for children of all ages. This special 20th anniversary commemorative edition reproduces this wonderful story in full color and detail."

"Set in 19th century China this is the story of young Huang Feihong, the legendary Cantonese martial arts master and folk hero, who, leading his misfit militia, is determined to stop the immoral slave trade that serves the California gold fields. When his aunt is kidnapped to be sold as a prostitute, Wong must battle his countrymen and the superior firepower of the slave traders, all for the very soul of traditional China."

"Set in the early 1960s, 'A brighter summer day' is based on the true story of a crime that rocked Taiwan. A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual but inexorable fall of a young teenager from innocence to delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil."

"Banned in China, this film is the most acclaimed and controversial to come out of the new Chinese cinema. Told from the perspective of a young boy, Tietou, it traces the fate of a Beijing family and their neighbors through the political and social upheavals in 1950's and 60's China."

"By the end of Qing Dynasty, the Soong sisters Ai-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling became legends in their own time. One loved money, one loved power, and one loved her country. Their lives were interwoven into the turbulent history of modern China. Ching-ling married to Dr. Sun who led to the 1911 revolution and she embarked on a long journey of vagrant life ..."

"English language production introducing characters from China's most popular animated television series of 1999."

"Marda (Jia Hongshen) falls in love with Moudan (Zhou Xun), then tries to kidnap her for ransom. Moudan escapes in the Suzhou River, never to be heard from again. Marda, after serving three years in prison for the kidnapping, meets a woman who looks exactly like Moudan (played by Zhou Xun in a dual role). This film shares many thematic and stylistic elements with Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo."

"A prosperous businessman is summoned home by his intellectually disabled younger brother under the mistaken belief that their father has died. The older son returns and develops a new appreciation for the traditional bath house the family runs and its importance to the community."

"In Peking in 1902, an Englishman named Wallace (Jared Harris) arrives with a hand-cranked projector and a box of silent movies. Eventually, he overcomes tradition to build an audience for the new art form, films the people of China, and even shows his magic to the Empress. Most importantly, he makes a local disciple, the ambitious young technophile photographer Liu Jinglun (Xia Yu), who becomes entranced by the new invention. Liu's initial fascination with the mechanics of moving pictures quickly develops into a visionary understanding of cinema's metaphysical and political potential."

"Just as Guei, a bicycle messenger, makes his final payment for the silver mountain bike loaned by his company, he finds it stolen. After endless searching Guai discovers his bicycle is now in the hands of Jian, who bought the bicycle with stolen money. The bicycle represents an escape for both from the competitive pressures of their lives. For Guei, it means access to a job, an income, and survival. For Jian, it is the pathway to being 'cool' and being in the in-group, much like what a flashy sports car represents to Western young men. Though Guei and Jian finally work out a deal, they find themselves involved in a series of unforgettable events."

"Chan Wing Yan is a hard-nosed veteran cop sent undercover to infiltrate the notorious Triad crime ring. An expert at bringing down violent crime syndicates, Chan thinks it's going to be a routine mission. What he's not prepared for is the discovery that the Triad's boss has [also] planted a mole in the police department ... and now Chan is being hunted down. In this battle of wills, only one cop can win!"

"Set in the ferocious Gobi Desert, the story follows Lieutenant Li and Japanese emissary Lai Xi, both first-class warriors and master swordsmen. After decades of service to the Chinese Emperor, Lai Xi longs to return to Japan, but is instead sent to the west to chase wanted criminals. His only passport back to Japan is to capture and execute Lieutenant Li, a renegade soldier wanted for leading a violent mutiny when he refused orders to kill female and child prisoners."

"It is a night of torrential rain, and the roof of the Fun-Ho Grand Theater in Taipei is leaking. The movie showing--King Hu's lush 1966 swordplay classic 'Dragon Inn'--Is the theaters last-ever screening. Once a beacon for a city of moviegoers, the theater has become a haven for hustlers, tired old men, lonely employees, and possibly even ghosts. A gloomy-looking young Japanese man wanders in and finds his concentration disrupted by various annoyances: a boy munching popcorn, a woman in heavy makeup cracking sunflower seeds, a pair of bare feet sticking over the seat next to him. The ticket taker, the washroom attendant, and the projectionist silently perform their tasks, in this poetic and elegiac exposition on longing, synchronicity, nostalgia, and the death of cinema."

"Sing is a hapless, small-time gangster who is desperate to join the evil Axe Gang. When he stumbles into a local slum, his cocky behavior sparks an epic Kung Fu showdown between the town's landlords and the all-powerful Axe Gang. As the battle erupts, an unlikely hero transforms into the greatest Kung Fu master of all."

"Banned in China, Jiang Wen's ravishingly photographed anti-war epic is set in 1945 in Japanese-occupied rural China where a peasant is forced to shelter two prisoners: one Japanese who wants to die, and his Chinese interpreter who wants to live."

"The story of a dysfunctional family of five in China in the 1970s, a daughter with dreams of being a paratrooper, a son with emotional problems, and parents with difficulties coping."

"Made on location in a village in the Amdo region, the film follows a young lama assigned for Tibetan New Year to attend to the seven year old Living Buddha (tulku) of a mountain monastery. The young lamas try to balance their strict training with explorations of the outside world through the novelty of television, and make some surprising choices. Like all great neo-realist films, The Silent Holy Stones has the immediacy of a documentary, and Tseden delivers a compelling and intimate insider's view of everyday life in his home town," - from BuddhistFilmFoundation.org

"Inspired by the true story of a real life hero, Jet Li stars as a renowned martial arts champion who must come face to face with the most ferocious fighters in the world as part of a difficult path to redemption."

"A young girl works for a legal firm in the city of Zigong, Sichuan. Her job is to transcribing conversations between lawyers and their clients a dozen of interviews mostly with marital in nature: women seeking divorce, or redress against violent husbands. Some of them involve the issue which seems to be the single most prevalent matter in modern-day China: environmental concerns, and the pollution of the environment due to the presence of major chemical factories."

"A Japanese make-up artist is in Shanghai working at the NEAsian Music Awards. Later he's hit by a woman taxi driver. Despite language problems they spend the night together driving around Shanghai etc." - from IMDB.com

"Two males and a female vie for office. They indulge in low blows, character assassination and gestures of goodwill, all while gauging their standing with voters. The setting is a third-grade class at an elementary school in the city of Wuhan in central China. Chronicles a public school's first open elections."

"A 'farewell cruise' takes a luxury ship up the vast Yangtze River shortly before completion of the massive Three Gorges Dam. The passengers glimpse a rapidly changing countryside, while the local people struggle to adapt as their lives are irrevocably altered."

"After running dry in Taipei, failed singer Aga returns to his picturesque coastal hometown of Hengchun and joins a band thrown together by Japanese concert promoter Tomoko. With members ranging from age 10 to 80, there's more bumbling than rocking for this ragtag bunch, but a new love song awaits when Aga and Tomoko find seven undelivered letters written 60 years ago."

"RED CLIFF is the epic historical drama based on a legendary 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty. A power-hungry Prime Minister-turned- General Cao Cao seeks permission from the Han Dynasty Emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush the two troublesome warlords who stand in his way, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. Vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s brutal, fast-approaching army, the warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign - unrivaled in history - that changes the face of China forever." - from Amazon.com

"The entire epic of Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Man's extraordinary life: from defending his morals by not teaching martial arts to Japanese soldiers in WWII, to trying to open his own studio in British-occupied Hong Kong, and finally standing up to a crooked organization which would overrun his studio and the city. Dramatized version of the life of Bruce Lee's legendary mentor."

"This documentary explores the extraordinary life of the Chinese revolutionary heroine and women's rights activist Qiu Jin (1875-1907). During the reign of the last dynasty in China, Qiu Jin boldly challenged traditional gender roles and demanded equal rights and opportunities for women. At a time when women's lives were often marked by repressive practices such as footbinding, arranged marriages, and denial of education, she envisioned a future where women would free themselves from the confines of tradition and emerge as strong and active citizens of a new and modern nation. Includes dramatic reenactments and interviews with family members and academics."

"Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as an astonishing 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the largest human migration on the planet, an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Working over several years in classic verite, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan ... travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, Last Train Home's intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the human cost of China's ascendance as an economic superpower."

"With his career in tatters, China's deadliest Special Forces operative has settled into a quiet life on the sea. But when he crosses paths with a sadistic band of mercenaries terrorizing innocent civilians, he must reaffirm his duty as a soldier and save the day once again."

"A dying old lady reminisces about her happier moments. Her daughter, Hui Ying, decides to move her father's grave from his hometown to beside her mother's grave. However, his first wife, who has looked after the grave for years, doesn't approve, and their disagreement ends up becoming a problem for the whole town. Hui Yang's daughter, Weiwei, works at a broadcasting company. After showing a video clip of a scuffle between her mother and step-grandmother to her colleagues, it becomes local news, and much gossip ensues." - from IMDB.com

"Bi Gan follows up his knockout debut, Kaili Blues, with this noir-tinged stunner about a lost soul (Jue Huang) on a quest to find a missing woman from his past (Wei Tang, Lust, Caution). Following leads across Guizhou province, he crosses paths with a series of colorful characters, among them a prickly hairdresser played by Taiwanese superstar Sylvia Chang. When the search leads him to a dingy movie theater, the film launches into an hour-long, gravity-defying 3D sequence shot that plunges its protagonist—and us—into a labyrinthine cityscape. China's biggest arthouse hit of all time, the film took in more than $40 million dollars in its opening weekend at the domestic box office." - from Kino Lorber

"The fates of an unlucky pig farmer, a feisty home-owner defending her property, a lovestruck busboy, a disenchanted rich girl, and an American ex-pat pursuing the Chinese Dream converge and collide as thousands of dead pigs are found floating down the Huangpu River, towards a modernizing Shanghai in Cathy Yan's (Birds Of Prey) debut feature."

"Isa and Kalbinur are a pair of best friends who live in a small Uyghur village in the Xinjiang region of China and attend elementary school together. The two are so tight that they share custody of a baby lamb each day after school. But not everything is as smooth, sweet, and straightforward in their lives as taking care of the little animal. Isa has to take care of his sick, non-verbal mother, who is prone to running away from home. Kalbinur's parents are always fighting and struggling with poverty. And then, there is Mandarin: the official language that the kids have to become proficient in to have a future. Isa is trying his best with the state language, while Kalbinur is lagging behind. As their parents have to make some hard choices, Isa and Kalbinur face big, unexpected changes in their lives, the first advent of what growing up will be.When Isa is not at school or working on his parents' farmyard, he spends carefree days with his friends - until the outside world starts forcing him to say one goodbye after another."

"One of the most acclaimed feature debuts of the last decade, the first and, tragically, last film from Hu Bo, who took his own life at the age of twenty-nine, is a tour de force of existential fury and transcendent catharsis. Set under the gray skies of China’s industrial north, AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL traces the intertwining lives of a band of dispossessed souls who come together on a pilgrimage toward a city in Manchuria where a circus elephant is rumored to be sitting still, seemingly oblivious to the pain and tribulations of the world at large. Composed in a series of bravura tracking shots, this profoundly felt epic gathers an overwhelming emotional power as it moves toward its soul-shattering climax." - Criterion.com

"Based on a true story, outnumbered and under-equipped Chinese soldiers defend the Sihang Warehouse from the Imperial Japanese Army during the battle of Shanghai."