-
The Foliage
Yunnan ProvinceOn her way back from a family visit, young female intellectual Xing-Yu meets the equally young and rebellious Si-Mong and the two fall in love. When Xing-Yu's childhood friend and lover Yuan gets into a fight with Si-Mong, Xing-Yu tries to make peace between the two jealous rivals. Her attempts for truce further draw her into a forbidden and passionate relationship instead.
-
Drifters
Fujian ProvinceThe young adult life of Hong Yunsheng, nicknamed Little Brother, is seen as somewhat of a failure by those that know him. A Chinese national, he stowed away on a boat to the United States, where he worked as a dishwasher in the restaurant of a family from his hometown back in Fujian province. After two years in the States and after fathering an illegitimate child there named Fusheng, the child's mother Xuhui who is the restaurateur's daughter, he was deported back to China. Since, he has been floundering in life, which has caused a rift between himself and his older brother, who, with his wife, operate a street front diner and can't have children of their own. Little Brother relies on his new girlfriend, a woman he barely knows named Wu Ruifang who is a performer in a touring opera troupe, for emotional support. Despite Little Brother being the local poster boy for not stowing away, his friend named Monkey tried to do the same, but died on the voyage over due to exposure to toxic ..
-
Nuan
Jiangxi ProvinceLike Huo's Postmen in the Mountains, Nuan is a rural drama. The film follows Lin Jinghe, a young man who, for the last ten years, has been living in the big city. When he returns home, he runs into his childhood love, Nuan.
-
Cala, my dog!
BeijingThe humdrum existence of a Beijing factory worker and his family is disrupted when their beloved dog is confiscated by the police for being unlicensed. The worker has but 24 hours to raise the sizable sum required to pay the license fee.
-
The Forbidden Team
TibetThis documentary feature describes the first-ever match of the Tibetan national soccer team, and the circumstances under which it was played. The match was played in Denmark against the Greenlandic national team and was preceded by much difficulty for the players and for the Danish enthusiasts who were responsible for the initiative.
-
Incense
Shanxi ProvinceIn "Incense", director Ning Hao makes a comment on the state of traditional Buddhism in modern China. He portrays a disspirited, empty setting in which old Buddhist values are replaced by modern values of materialism and capitalism.
-
Hero
🇨🇳 China The 3rd Century BC The 4th Century BCOne man's strength will unite an empire. — One man defeated three assassins who sought to murder the most powerful warlord in pre-unified China.
-
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Sichuan Province The 1970sDuring the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor’s beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.
-
Returner
Tibet The 2000s The 2080sThe future could be history — After an alien invasion threatens to annihilate the human race, a young Japanese girl, named Milly, travels back in time from 2084 to October 2002, and enlists the reluctant aid of skilled Tokyo gunman, named Miyamoto, to discover and prevent the start of the war. However, trouble ensues when the two protagonists are forced to deal with a Japanese mafia boss, named Mizoguchi, who is somehow involved in the start of the war by keeping the first alien spaceship and its alien pilot captive, while our two heroes race against the clock to find a way to stop the oncoming destruction from the vengeance-seeking alien invasion fleet on its way to Earth.
-
Chen Mo and Meiting
Beijing -
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
🇨🇳 China The 1970sA movie within a movie, created to spoof the martial arts genre. Writer/director Steve Oedekerk uses contemporary characters and splices them into a 1970s kung-fu film, weaving the new and old together. As the main character, The Chosen One, Oedekerk sets off to avenge the deaths of his parents at the hands of kung-fu legend Master Pain. Along the way he encounters some strange characters.
-
Together
BeijingSome lessons can only be learned by heart. — When a violin prodigy Xiaochun and his father head to Beijing seeking fame and fortune, they soon discover a fierce world of cutthroat ambition. But when Xiaochun is "adopted" by a famous music tutor, success finally seems within reach - until a shocking discovery begins to unravel his entire world, and the boy must make the most difficult choice of his life. Can he achieve the fame his father had always hoped for without losing the extraordinary passion that sets him apart?
-
Chinese Odyssey 2002
🇨🇳 China The 16th CenturyThe Emperor (Chang Chen) is desperate for the free-spirited life of a wanderer, and tries to escape from the royal palace with his sister, the Princess (Faye Wong). He's caught and returned to his angry mother by the royal guards, but the Princess, disguised as a man, manages to escape. Meanwhile, King Bully (Tony Leung) has returned to his hometown, where he is widely despised for his bullying ways, to run a restaurant with his tomboy sister, Phoenix (Vicki Zhao). They have a very close relationship. In fact, King Bully mistakenly believes that he can read his sister's mind. When the Princess arrives in town, King Bully finds himself drawn to her, but, believing she's a man, decides that his attraction is some kind of empathy with Phoenix.
-
I Love You
BeijingA young woman who has lost her first love begins a relationship with his best friend, and the two of them attempt to create a baggage-free future.
-
Ten years in the making, this award-winning feature-length documentary was filmed during nine journeys throughout Tibet, India and Nepal. CRY OF THE SNOW LION brings audiences to the long-forbidden "rooftop of the world" with an unprecedented richness of imagery... from rarely-seen rituals in remote monasteries, to horse races with Khamba warriors; from brothels and slums in the holy city of Lhasa, to magnificent Himalayan peaks still traveled by nomadic yak caravans. The dark secrets of Tibet's recent past are powerfully chronicled through personal stories and interviews, and a collection of undercover and archival images never before assembled in one film. A definitive exploration of a legendary subject, CRY OF THE SNOW LION is an epic story of courage and compassion
-
Spring Subway
BeijingA stylish urban romance about the silent suffering of a modern Chinese couple.
-
Shanghai Ghetto
Shanghai The 1930sIn 1939, the last hope for thousands of Jews lay in the last place on Earth the Nazis would look. — SHANGHAI GHETTO recalls the strange-but-true story of thousands of European Jews who were shut out of country after country while trying to escape Nazi persecution in the late 1930s. Left without options or entrance visas, a beacon of hope materialized for them on the other side of the world, and in the unlikeliest of places, Japanese-controlled Shanghai. Fleeing for their lives, these Jewish refugees journeyed to form a settlement in the exotic city, penniless and unprepared for their new life in the Far East. At the turn of the new millennium, filmmakers Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amire Mann boldly snuck into China with two survivors and a digital camera to shoot at the site of the original Shanghai Ghetto, unchanged since WWII.
-
Unknown Pleasures
Shanxi Province The 2000sThree disaffected youths live in Datong in 2001, part of the new "Birth Control" generation. Fed on a steady diet of popular culture, both Western and Chinese, the characters of Unknown Pleasures represent a new breed in the People's Republic of China, one detached from reality through the screen of media and the internet.
-
The Missing Gun
Guizhou ProvinceIn this tense thriller, Ma Shan (Wen Jiang) is a Chinese police detective who awakes one morning after a night of heavy drinking at his sister's wedding reception to discover that his gun has been stolen. Since only police officers are allowed to carry firearms, Ma Shan is alarmed about the deadly possibilities of the theft, and he sets out to find his weapon; however, the memories of Ma Shan's friends are as hazy as his own regarding the wedding, and no one can tell who drove him home. The situation comes to a head when Ma Shan's former girlfriend arrives in town for a visit and is soon found shot dead with the bullets matching those used in his gun.
-
The Shanghai Spell
ShanghaiA fourteen year old lad discovers his first love at the point of his pencil whilst drawing the portrait of a sickly but coquettish fifteen year old girl. In the neighbourhood an old freedom-fighter pits himself against bad types, a pretty cinema-ticket girl takes to the streets at night and a young anarchist dedicates himself to telling tall stories. Far away, in Shanghai, a hero of the Republic meets a beautiful femme fatal with oriental eyes. Reality and fiction become fused in an embrace.
-
Cry Woman
Beijing Guizhou ProvinceDesperate to support her family and earn enough money to get her husband out of jail, a woman with an unusual crying style becomes a professional mourner.
-
The Lion Roars
🇨🇳 China The 11th CenturyDuring the Soong Dynasty, a beautiful woman named Liu is searching for a husband, but is unable to find one until she hears the avant-garde poetry of Chen. Soon the two are married and Chen discovers that his new bride is violently temperamental and insanely jealous, who limits his activities and lifestyle. When a princess falls in love with the poet and the Emperor decrees that Chen must take the princess in as a second-wife. The love between Liu and Chen is put to the test.
-
Life Show
Chongqing MunicipalityThe story of a beautiful, single woman who runs a restaurant in inland China, delving into her battle to understand the rapid changes affecting society around her.
-
For the Children
Ningxia HuiIn response to the death of her husband and young son, peasant Zhang Meili founds a school in the dry desert landscape of northwest China. When cultured and chipper Xia Yu arrives from Beijing to help her out, the two women bond and learn from each other's character how to best serve the children. Various subplots include the arrival of Xia's husband, who tries in vain to persuade her to return to the city, Xia's quick abortion, and the comically clandestine relationship between Zhang and a local projectionist.
-
Spy Game
Jiangsu Province The 1970s The 1980s The 1990sIt's not how you play the game. It's how the game plays you. — On the day of his retirement, a veteran CIA agent learns that his former protégé has been arrested in China, is sentenced to die the next morning in Beijing, and that the CIA is considering letting that happen to avoid an international scandal.
-
Samsara
TibetA love story situated in the Himalayas. A Buddhist monk can't choose between life and the way of the Buddha.
-
Shaolin Soccer
Shanghai The 2000sGet ready to kick some grass! — A young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.
-
Beijing Bicycle
BeijingA seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
-
Lan Yu
Beijing The 1980s The 1990sA love story between a country boy in Beijing to study and a wealthy businessman set against the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident
-
Beijing Rocks
BeijingA rock and roll story that portrays the decay of political and cultural lacunae that have separated China and Hong Kong for so long.
-
Wu Yen
🇨🇳 China The 4th Century BCLost in the woods, the Emperor Qi (Anita Mui) stumbles across local chief Wu Yen, his predestined bride, only to accidentally free a promiscuous fox fairy who promptly falls in love with both of them, changing between man and woman to clumsily woo each, setting the scene for a constantly shifting triangle with the emperor torn between both the fox fairy and Wu Yen and the fox fairy after whichever one will agree to marry her/him first.
-
Road to Redemption
🇨🇳 China The 2000sA couple come into contact with stolen mob money, gamble it away, and end up on the run from gangsters
-
Japanese Devils
🇨🇳 China The 1930s The 1940sA documentary recording the testimony of fourteen former Japanese soldiers as they recount atrocities and war crimes committed during the Second World War, including the the infamous Unit 731 medical experimentation group. Having been trained by their country to be nothing but killers, the soldiers claim to have become morally numb and unable to see non-Japanese as even human. Perhaps feeling some remorse for what they have done, they now choose to tell their stories for the world to hear.
-
Bus 44
🇨🇳 ChinaVenice Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival award-winning short film. On the outskirts of a small town, a bus driver and her passengers encounter highway robbers. "Bus 44" carries a universal theme that travels across all boundaries and societies, trespassing the dark side and bright side of human behavior.
-
Vampire Controller
🇨🇳 ChinaTony Leung Hung Wa contributes a new entry into the hopping vampire and sorcery genre that was at its peak in the mid-eighties. Southern Mao and Northern Ma are professional corpse escorts. They have been given the task of escorting a pair of lovers, Wong and Jenny, to their final resting place. Mao and Ma take on the job, accompanied by their apprentices, and begin their journey. But a dark wizard, Ha La Chak, is on their trail, searching for a secret letter possibly concealed within Wong's body.
-
Para Para Sakura
ShanghaiPhillip (Aaron Kwok) is a dance instructor who holds a class devoted to the latest dance craze, Para Para. While in Shanghai, he meets Yee (Cecilia Cheung), a spoiled rich girl who is running away from her impending arranged marriage. Soon, Yee begins using Phillip's dance studio as a sanctuary from her responsibilities, and an attraction begins to form between the two. However, Yee is called back to Japan to be married before long, and Phillip must use more than his dance skills and charisma to prevent her from taking her vows.
-
Big Shot's Funeral
BeijingYankie director Don Tyler faces mounting insecurity and declining health while on location in Beijing, so his assistant hires down-and-out camerman YoYo to take the reins. Scrambling, studio boss sells the sagging picture to a Japanese media company. But YoYo is determined to upstage the whole production by granting the director's wish to have a grand "comedy funeral". To raise the money for it, he auctions off advertising and sponsorships for the funeral to companies around the world. But wait...is Don getting better?
-
I Love Beijing
Beijing The 2000sFilmmaker Ning Ying returns to her favorite theme – the gradual decay of traditional Chinese values and culture at the dawn of the 21st century – in this low-key drama. Desi (Yu Lei) is a cab driver who has recently broken up with his wife. Lonely, Desi is searching for a new love, and as he drifts through Beijing in search of fares and a girlfriend, he sees a city that is increasingly bending to the influence of the West, with traditional pastimes and customs forced to make way for the onslaught of the free-market economy. Xia Ri Nuan Yangyang has been screened on the international film festival circuit in two different versions; the cut shown at the 2001 Rotterdam Film Festival ran 99 minutes, while the film was only 79 minutes when it appeared at the Berlin Film Festival that same year.
-
Platform
Shanxi Province The 1980s The 1970sThe movie is set in the remote Chinese province of Fenyang, and spans the turbulent 1980s by following four performers in the state-run Peasant Culture Group. We see the group evolve from workers that are restricted to approved revolutionary classics that praise Chairman Mao, through performance of Western classics, after China adopts an 'open door' policy, and the effects on their lives.
-
The Orphan of Anyang
Henan ProvinceA prostitute from the Northeast, desperate and unable to make ends meet, abandons her baby. An unemployed factory worker decides to take the child for the 200 yuan (about $37 Canadian) a month in child support promised by its mother. His early attempts at child-rearing are somewhat painful to watch, but also charming and amusing. Eventually, he and the mother become friendly and it seems that the child will be raised in a sweetly unorthodox family. However, when the woman's pimp, a local gangster, not only finds out that he may have fathered the child, but also that he is dying of cancer, he decides that he must adopt the baby - and is willing to resort to violence if necessary.
-
Soarin' Over California
ShanghaiFeel the wind race across your face during a breezy airborne adventure above California’s natural and manmade wonders.
-
Purple Sunset
🇨🇳 China The 1940s The 1930sA Soviet Russian lady officer, a Chinese peasant and a Japanese schoolgirl must walk their way out of a forest toward the end of World War II, despite their mutual distrust of one another.
-
In Public
Shanxi Provincedocumentary — A fragmentary landscape for a little train station in a suburban area and a bus stop in a mining town. A lonely soldier in his heavy coat, a tired old man, a bubbly young lady, a punk, a woman waiting in the street... From all those different people in these unfamiliar places, we can feel the exhaustion of every life.
-
Fish and Elephant
BeijingThe story follows the elephant keeper in the Beijing Zoo who maintains an aquarium of fish in her home (hence the two-animal title), and her lesbian lover, a fabric saleswoman in an outdoor market. Her relationship is tested, however, when her recently divorced mother returns to town in the hope of setting her daughter up in marriage. Further complicating matters is one of Xiaoqun's ex-lovers also returning to her life with the law in pursuit.
-
Restless
BeijingLeah is travelling the world when she eventually settles in Beijing, China, where she meets Master Sun Zhan who teaches her the art of weiqi. Her path crosses with American Chinese Richard whose family had sent him to Beijing to arrange his grandfather's ashes. A romance soon blossoms between them.
-
Seafood
Beijing Hebei ProvinceZhang Xiaomei (Jin Zi), is a prostitute living in Beijing. When relationship problems with her boyfriend erupt, she flees to the resort city of Beidaihe and takes a room in a small hotel where she contemplates committing suicide. There she meets a young poet. The next morning, she wakes and learns that the poet has slit his wrists. When the police arrive, she meets Deng Jianguo (Cheng Taisheng), a middle-aged officer who questions her over the poet's death. Their relationship soon grows increasingly complicated as Deng learns of Xiaomei's plans to commit suicide. Over the course of several days, he takes her to eat seafood dinners, extolling the virtues and health benefits of the diet, including a claim that it makes him a more potent lover. When Xiaomei tries to commit suicide in a nearby town, she is thwarted by Deng who brings her back to Beidaihe and proceeds to rape her. Xiaomei eventually leaves the seaside town for Beijing again.
-
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Beijing The 19th Century The 18th CenturyA timeless story of strength, secrets and two warriors who would never surrender. — Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life.
-
In the Mood for Love
Shanghai The 1960sFeel the heat, keep the feeling burning, let the sensation explode. — A melancholy story set in Hong Kong in 1962. A woman and a man who live in the same crowded apartment building discover that their husband and wife are having an affair.
- load more
← swipe for more →