Most Enlightening / Informative Films about China

[chengdude]

Well, because I started the thread on LP's ThornTree, I shouldn't have any reservations about re-posting it to Roddy's site. More than simply your favorite film or favorite recent film, I'd like know what films have stimulated people's curiosity or interest in all things China or Chinese...as well as simply enjoyed. So, here is the -slightly revised- list of my favorite films that illuminate some aspect of life in China, Hong Kong, and/or Taiwan, lend insight to some aspect of Chinese culture, or just capture the feeling of a particular place. Of course, no one is suggesting films are an accurate reflection of reality, but some certainly deserve mention for trying and many others are certainly provocative and/or evocative. Again, these titles should be readily available abroad (including their often dreadful English names) and the list is probably missing some good ones, so please add away...

HONG KONG:

Wong Kar Wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS, an amazing film that was apparently tossed off in the process of Wong's making FALLEN ANGELS; this one has been thoroughly and critically dissected for reflecting the spirit and mood of life in modern Hong Kong.

Peter Chan's HE AIN'T HEAVY HE'S MY FATHER, a lightweight film that nevertheless carries a message of familial bonds. Most of its running time is set in Hong Kong during the 50's. However inaccurate the results might be, it is fun, nostalgic movie-making at its best.

Sammo Hung's PEDICAB DRIVER, a great martial arts film and a lovely look at the streets of vintage Macau.

Clara Law's FAREWELL CHINA, a brutally melodramatic story of immigration to the United States.

Yim Ho's RED DUST, a perpetual fan favorite and star Brigitte Lin's best work; a film based on the life of a Chinese writer and set during the time of the Japanese occupation and eventual Communist victory...super-melodramatic scenes of the KMT's retreat to Taiwan.

Stanley Kwan's ACTRESS, a biography of Ruan Lingyu, the Chinese silent film star. Can Maggie Cheung get any more luminous?

Tony Au's AU REVOIR MON AMOUR, some of Anita Mui's best work and another period melodrama set in Japan-occupied China.

Lawrence Ah Mon's GANGS, an attempt at near-verite filmmaking about youth gangs in HK.

Derek Yee's FULL THROTTLE, well, it's a pretty standard Hong Kong-style movie, but the acting is strong (probably Andy Lau's best work) and it deals relatively honestly with motorcycle street racing in after-hours HK.

Peter Chan's COMRADES, ALMOST A LOVE STORY, another immigration story, this time from Mainland China to Hong Kong and eventually to New York. Sweet film and the only one I've seen that has used the impact of Teresa Teng's (Deng Lijun) death on the Chinese community as a plot device.

Jacob Cheung's CAGEMAN, an intense film about working-poor men and retirees who live in cages crowded inside an old building in HK. I'm not sure how accurate the film is, but it's a great counterpoint to the glitz and glamour so many HK-based films showcase.

Tsui Hark's ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA; OK, OK, it's a great martial arts film, but it also wears its patriotic heart on its sleeve and, somewhat ironically, also works as an allegory for anxiety over the return of Hong Kong to China.

Tsui Hark's THE CHINESE FEAST, which gives the viewer some lighthearted insight into the Chinese culture (madness, perhaps) of food and eating. A fun movie with some serious cooking techniques included, however exaggerated in action.

King Hu's COME DRINK WITH ME, the Shaw Brothers classic, for its somewhat subtle juxtaposition of Taoism and Buddhism and for its subtler influence of Chinese opera in the staging and actors' movements in various scenes.

Mabel Cheung's THE SOONG SISTERS for its dramatized true story of 3 sisters who married and grew into the height of power in revolutionary China and became hugely influential figures in their own right.

Mabel Cheung's BEIJING ROCKS, for its earnest attempt to portray the underground rock scene in Beijing.

Anything by director Ann Hui, like SUMMER SNOW, SONG OF THE EXILE, ORDINARY HEROES, and BOAT PEOPLE will also feature intelligent plots with enough political commentary, allegory, and/or scenery to keep you interested.

CHINA:

Zhang Yang's THE SHOWER, a really deceptive film that, on the surface, seems to be a drama with a light comedic touch about healing the rifts within a family, it is also a scathing commentary on modern Chinese life: the destruction of hutongs as an allegory for the destruction of the fabric of society, the marginalization of the elderly and the loss of tradition that accompanies it, the crassness of the rush to get rich, and the emotional distance that a preoccupation with success brings. Beautiful shots of hutongs, a brief interlude/flashback in the highlands of Shaanxi province, and a filmed introduction to many traditional hobbies and daily rituals (cricket fighting, massage, the public bath, "Chinese checkers," etc.) complete the package. A really great film that works on many levels.

Tian Zhuangzhuang's THE BLUE KITE, a beautifully filmed story of an ordinary family living through 50's and 60's China. Needless to say, the family's unhappy fate at each and every change of The Great Helmsman's direction guaranteed an official ban in China for this one. The hutong settings nearly steal the show.

Joan Chen's XIU XIU THE SENT-DOWN GIRL, an utterly depressing, emotionally violent Cultural Revolution story of a city girl from Chengdu "sent down" to the highlands. I'm not sure how intentional it was, but the beautiful grasslands of the Tibet Plateau in Sichuan Province, which served as the backdrop for the bulk of the film, make for a poignant contrast to the wretched fate of the young girl. An amazingly strong first feature from Ms. Chen, who got herself banned from working in China for any number of years for illegally filming in Sichuan. Can't imagine the government was happy with the results, either.

Wu Tianming's THE KING OF MASKS, another piece set in Sichuan, this one along the river towns of central Sichuan. A shameless tearjerker, the overacting is nevertheless redeemed by its setting and novel main character: an aging practitioner of Sichuan face-changing opera. The only film I've seen that features a scene with the giant Buddha at Leshan, the entire work features great cinematography.

Zhang Yimou's RAISE THE RED LANTERN; this film stars a really big house, the Qiao Jia Da Yuan near Pingyao, which has since become a popular tourist attraction. Great period piece, no matter what your take on the accuracy of its depiction of a wealthy household and the competition among the wives of the landlord. It also stars Gong Li.

Zhang Yimou's THE STORY OF QIU JIU; trying to right a wrong in modern-day China, Gong Li's stubbornly persistent character wanders from countryside to city back to countryside in search of a bureaucratic resolution.

Zhang Yimou's TO LIVE, his own look at the disasters of modern Chinese history through the experiences of one family; more ambitious and covering more events than THE BLUE KITE. Ge You proves his acting depth goes beyond situational and romantic comedy.

(I should also mention two more recent works by Zhang Yimou: THE ROAD HOME and NOT ONE LESS. These two are much more muted works with very uncontroversial plots. No doubt their messages of family strength, hearth-andhome, and dedication to purpose resonated more deeply with Chinese audiences. Both feature great scenery of rural China. These films were from Zhang's "I'm pissed at The West's expectations" period when he grew tired of living up to the period costume dramas that film festivals expected from him.)

Chen Kaige's YELLOW EARTH; more of a Film Statement than a film, the plot nevertheless manages to shed just a bit of light on the Communists' organized documentation of folk songs for propaganda purposes. Great scenes of rural Shaanxi.

Wang Xiaoshuai's BEIJING BICYCLE, a really gritty, heartbreaking film loaded with metaphor for all the ills of modern life in China: greed, rural migration, breakdown of family, etc. etc.

Zhang Yuan's SEVENTEEN YEARS, a superb film that precedes BEIJING BICYCLE in its grim assessment of modern city life; it explores many of the same themes. Especially stark in its depiction of the relocation/displacement of families in the name of urban renewal, this one is also unique for its storyline of the imprisonment and "reform through labor" of a young girl, some of which was filmed inside a women's prison using talent found in situ.

Huang Jianxin's THE WOODEN MAN'S BRIDE is an otherwise overheated story that nevertheless touches on Chinese traditions of a women's fidelity even after her husband's death. The twist here is that the woman was only betrothed and the marriage was not yet consummated. It also features dramatic cinematography filmed in "northwest China" ...perhaps Shaanxi or Shanxi?

Chen Kaige's TOGETHER features a few scenes in Suzhou and a lot in modern Beijing. I think it is his most obvious film to date with a too-blunt juxtaposition of "old professor living in hutong (the old ways) vs. superstar professor in stylish apartment (the new ways). It does however, prominently feature a character that has been popping up more and more in Chinese cinema: the gold-digger with a heart of gold...those young, good-looking women whose sole, gainful employment in life seems to be the hunting and corraling of rich businessmen. You can see this character as well in BEIJING BICYCLE and in another grim, depressing movie about modern China whose name escapes me, but it was set, I believe, in Wuhan and told the story of an economic migrant and the self-destruction of his wiser friend/mentor/roommate. Help with title?

I just watched Zhang Yang's (see THE SHOWER above) film QUITTING, which has to make the list for tackling addiction and mental health issues in China through the eyes of Jia Hongsheng, an actor who got himself hooked on heroin and whom I am embarrassed to say I don't recognize from any other film despite his fame.

TAIWAN:

Edward Yang's YI YI, a lyrical portrait of a contemporary Taipei family; so good that its 3-hour running time seems like much, much less.

Edward Yang's A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY, even longer than YI YI (about 4 hours) and every bit as good; you need to brush up on Taiwanese history to fully appreciate this period piece (set in early 60's Taiwan), something I haven't done yet myself.

Hou Hsaio Hsien's FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI, a lush, mood-piece about the inner workings of a late Qing-era Shanghai brothel.

Hou Hsaio Hsien's THE PUPPETMASTER; wow, what a film: Taiwanese history, a traditional Chinese art form, and traditional Chinese values all for your one rental fee.

Ang Lee's EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN, a food-as-allegory film with an aging chef using his cooking to communicate and emotionally connect with his daughters. Plenty of family and life-in-modern-Taipei issues to consider while watching one of the best Chinese cooking shows you're likely to see.

(I also like the work of Tsai Ming-liang, whose films fairly scream "SHOW ME AT A FILM FESTIVAL IN A EUROPEAN CITY!" They are quite ideosyncratic and probably much meaning for the disjointed and disaffected in Taiwan, but don't quite fit the criteria here.)

INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS:

Bernardo Bertolucci's THE LAST EMPEROR would have to be included as a easy-to-digest primer of modern Chinese history and, of course, for a typically stunning Bertolucci production (although you really have to give credit to his favorite cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro). The first Western film, I believe, granted unprecedented access to the Forbidden City.

Ann Hu's SHADOW MAGIC for its fictionalized story of the introduction of moving pictures to China (there's a lovely sequence in the film that really captures the magic of the Great Wall).

AND FINALLY, DOCUMENTARIES:

CHINA IN THE RED was a documentary shown as part of the FRONTLINE series on PBS in the U.S. The only program on television I've seen that has dealt honestly with the good and bad of China's recent economic direction. Truly heartbreaking scenes of workers utterly ill-equipped psychologically to deal with all the changes going on around them.

BECOMING AMERICAN was a Bill Moyers-produced, multi-part documentary also shown on PBS in the U.S. A superb overview of Chinese immigration, history, life, and contributions to the United States.

THE HEART OF THE DRAGON, the first multi-part TV documentary to look at life in modern China (mid-80's) produced by MacNeil/Lehrer of the long-running news program on PBS. It gets points for approaching the sprawling subject thematically (Work, Health, etc)...and today, for lots of near-vintage film footage, even though it's been only 20 years roughly.

[roddy]

And there was me thinking I knew an acceptable amount about Chinese cinema. I think I'll have to print that out and call it my 'to watch' list.

And welcome to the forum, Chengdude

Roddy

[Tsunku]

I watched a really moving short documentary when I was in a culture seminar in Yunnan last spring. It's an animated short called 'Sunrise over Tiananmen Square." I think it's kind of obscure, but if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend it. It got an Academy Award nomination a few years back for best short documentary I believe.

I didn't see 'Life on a String' mentioned on the list. I remember really relly liking it. Chen Kaige did it if I recall.

'To Live' and 'Red Sorghum' are my two favorite Zhang Yimou movies. 'Red Sorghum' is also an awesome book by Mo Yan. The last scene in the movie left me speechless.

That list is pretty comprehensive chendude

[niubi]

Wang Xiaoshuai's BEIJING BICYCLE' date=' a really gritty, heartbreaking film loaded with metaphor for all the ills of modern life in China: greed, rural migration, breakdown of family, etc. etc.[/quote']

its pretty impossible to find i think, but the wang xiaoshuai film you should really see is his debut film the days/dongchun de ri zi. frozen is also a must see.

Huang Jianxin's THE WOODEN MAN'S BRIDE is an otherwise overheated story that nevertheless touches on Chinese traditions of a women's fidelity even after her husband's death. The twist here is that the woman was only betrothed and the marriage was not yet consummated. It also features dramatic cinematography filmed in "northwest China" ...perhaps Shaanxi or Shanxi?

this is worthwile for viewing, but i think huang jianxin's body of work besides this film is probably the best prep course in what contemporary chinese life from the 1980s reform period on is all about.

huang jianxin: here's one director whose films really should be seen in the west. his films make occassional appearances in festivals, but as a whole never make it to any kind of theatrical or even vhs/dvd distribution. he is overlooked perhaps because his films are not lush costume/period pieces, self-obsessed in the craft of film-making - the kind of thing appealing to arthouse crowds, or flashy martial arts or gangster flicks. they are simply stories of china today - stories of individuals coming to grips with the changes transforming and forming a complex post-socialist china: explorations of the relations of individuals inside families, within a community, within workplaces, with the state and party, and within themselves - laced with healthy doses of irony, satire, and humour which is sometimes dark. perhaps its easier or more 'romantic' to imagine a china of the past, one that most likely never really existed and most certainly does not exist today. or, maybe its because people don't care about the real china as it truly is - a dynamic mix of stasis and revolution.

huang jianxin made one departure into a period piece, the wooden man's bride; we can forgive him for a moment of weakness. its not a bad film and i think you all should see it, but only within the context of his whole body of work. huang was in the same class at the beijing film academy with a number of film-makers who have now become well known to us: zhang yimou, chen kaige, tian zhuangzhuang - to name a few.

here's a preliminary filmography to guide you:

hei pao shi jian/black cannon incident

cuo wei/dislocation or the stand-in

lun hui/transmigration or samsara

zhan zhi luo bie pa xia/stand up, don't grovel

wu kui/wooden man's bride - though i think the original title was yan shen (to examine the body)

bei kao bei lian dui lian/back to back, face to face

da zuo deng xiang you zhuan/signal left, turn right

mai fu/surveillance

shui bu zhao/xi'an 's finest

marriage certificate

I just watched Zhang Yang's (see THE SHOWER above) film QUITTING, which has to make the list for tackling addiction and mental health issues in China through the eyes of Jia Hongsheng, an actor who got himself hooked on heroin and whom I am embarrassed to say I don't recognize from any other film despite his fame.

i would definitely recommend the film quitting/zuotian. it is the true life story of the young actor jia hongsheng and his battle with drug addiction, his relationship with his friends and family. jia, his family, and his friends all play themselves in this daring film. the better known films that jia hongsheng appeared in are samsara, suzhou river, frozen, good morning, beijing... also, this film has a decent soundtrack of chinese rock music.

in the category of documentary, my first vote would be for the national geographic film that appeared on pbs and to my reckoning is one of the very best documentaries about real life in contemporay china. it is china: beyond the clouds. it takes place in the beautiful town of lijiang, in yunnan province. it has what is probably the most realistic presentation of the chinese criminal law system ever caught on film in the thread of the documentary that follows a murder case.

[TSkillet]

I wonder why two China films from the 80s never make it on to anyone's lists? Is it because they weren't any good (I saw them in junior high - my standards for judging films were much different then) - or has no one seen them. . .or what? It's been about 10-15 years since I've seen:

A GREAT WALL - movie about a Chinese-American family visiting China where the father grew up - typical culture clash movie, with scenes about privacy and the american son almost beating all the chinese at ping pong

IRON AND SILK - Mark Salzman's autobiographical movie about his teaching English in Changsha and learning WuShu.

[niubi]

i've seen both, like you said many years ago. i think i prefer a great wall to iron and silk, but they wouldn't ordinarily (for me at least) come to mind when pressed on what films i thought would be good, informative films about china, past or present. i've read a lot of mark's books though.

[niubi]

TAIWAN:

Edward Yang

i also think that his films majiang and duli shidai/confucian confusion are excellent films about contemporary taibei despite the fact that i have never been to taiwan.

Tsai Ming-liang' date=' whose films fairly scream "SHOW ME AT A FILM FESTIVAL IN A EUROPEAN CITY!" They are quite ideosyncratic and probably much meaning for the disjointed and disaffected in Taiwan, but don't quite fit the criteria here.)

[/quote']

i would disagree with you, i think they do indeed fit the criteria you have set out; that is, they do indeed lend insight and capture a feeling of a place and time. they capture something important with regard to the nature of relationships (or the inability to have them): alienation from the self, the beloved, the family, and the city. its not something that can be only said of taibei, but urban life in the mainland, or anywhere in the world.

[chengdude]

i would disagree with you' date=' i think they do indeed fit the criteria you have set out; that is, they do indeed lend insight and capture a feeling of a place and time. they capture something important with regard to the nature of relationships (or the inability to have them): alienation from the self, the beloved, the family, and the city. its not something that can be only said of taibei, but urban life in the mainland, or anywhere in the world.[/quote']

Which is exactly why I didn't include any specific films on my list: for all the reasons you stated, Tsai Ming-liang's films deal with issues that could be transposed "anywhere inthe world." Compare this with another ideosyncratic director, Wong Kar-wai; while I have thoroughly enjoyed all his films, I only included CHUNGKING EXPRESS because not only is it a character-driven story that says something about the mood in Hong Kong, it also wonderfully captures place in China: the maze of the Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong's Indian working class, and to a lesser extent, the small shops and street life for everyday people.

[chengdude]

its pretty impossible to find i think' date=' but the wang xiaoshuai film you should really see is his debut film [i']the days/dongchun de ri zi[/i]. frozen is also a must see.

huang jianxin made one departure into a period piece, the wooden man's bride; we can forgive him for a moment of weakness. its not a bad film and i think you all should see it, but only within the context of his whole body of work. huang was in the same class at the beijing film academy with a number of film-makers who have now become well known to us: zhang yimou, chen kaige, tian zhuangzhuang - to name a few.

here's a preliminary filmography to guide you:

hei pao shi jian/black cannon incident

cuo wei/dislocation or the stand-in

lun hui/transmigration or samsara

zhan zhi luo bie pa xia/stand up, don't grovel

wu kui/wooden man's bride - though i think the original title was yan shen (to examine the body)

bei kao bei lian dui lian/back to back, face to face

da zuo deng xiang you zhuan/signal left, turn right

mai fu/surveillance

shui bu zhao/xi'an 's finest

marriage certificate

As I stated in the original post, my choices were considered partially on the basis on availability (anyone interested should have a fairly easy time tracking down almost all of the films)...since you have so provocatively dangled the proverbial carrot, can you offer any suggestions on where to look for any of the films that you have named above?

[laolee]

check layoyo, or yesasia and also sensasian online.

hei pao shi jian/black cannon incident

cuo wei/dislocation or the stand-in

lun hui/transmigration or samsara

zhan zhi luo bie pa xia/stand up, don't grovel aka STAND UP DON'T BEND OVER HK vcd no eng.subs

wu kui/wooden man's bride - though i think the original title was yan shen (to examine the body)

bei kao bei lian dui lian/back to back, face to face available on HK vcd

da zuo deng xiang you zhuan/signal left, turn right - can't remember where I saw the vcd, but no eng.subs

mai fu/surveillance HK vcd, no Eng.subs

shui bu zhao/xi'an 's finest HK vcd

marriage certificate aka WHO CARES R3 hk DVD

A few more I'd add to the excellent lists above:

LEGEND OF TIANYUN MOUNTAIN deals with the post cultural revolution rehabilitation through the story of a woman who renounced her lover and married a Party official to advance her career.

The films of Feng Xiaogang and featuring Ge You for the money grab attitude:

Be There Be Square / Bujian busan

Dream Factory /Jiafang yifang

Big Shot's Funeral

Ning Jing's On the Beat where the cops watch Hunter on TV and wish they could carry guns. Instead they catch stray dogs as public nuisances. An interesting companion/counterpoint to Cala, My Dog, which, coincidentally, also features Ge You trying to save his dog from the police.

Gunshot Over the Plains / PING YUAN QIANG SHENG - a recently made action film covering the anti Japanese resistance, from the many perspectives of the guerillas, the collaborator and the victims.

[pikachew]

This may not be necessary a list of the most enlightening nor informative Chinese films, but these are overall some of my favorites. I am writing based on memory here, so I probably am missing many of them. Almost all can be found on VCD (i.e. watched on any PC with a CD-ROM drive) with english and chinese subtitles. The best VCD store I have found on the internet (though never tried) is bluelaser.com - they seem to sell everything.

Hong Kong:

-- Days of Being Wild

-- Comrades, Almost a Love Story

-- Young and Dangerous I

-- Young and Dangerous II

-- Young and Dangerous III

-- Young and Dangerous IV

-- Young and Dangerous V

-- Infernal Affairs

-- ChungKing Express

-- Romantic Dream (1995 movie with Lau Ching Wan and Sharla Cheung - VERY funny)

-- Lee Rock

-- And I Hate You So

-- In the Mood for Love

and it seems that Hong Kong people love these following films (though I think they are just OK):

-- An Autmn's Tale

-- A Moment of Romance

-- As Tears Go By

and I like these old Shaw Brothers Studios movies that are luckily remastered now onto VCD and DVD:

-- Love Eterne (a.k.a. Butterfly Lovers)

-- Blue and Black (or is Black and Blue?)

Taiwan:

-- Beautiful Duckling (1964 movie, but available on VCD and DVD)

-- Cloud of Romance (1970's movie)

-- Mahjong (though no one would agree that this is that great, I just can't think of the other movies I want to list right now)

China:

I don't enough films from the Mainland to comment.

[Harvey]

Great list!

I wanted to share it with my Chinese friends, but they don't know most of the english titles. Would it be possible to get the chinese titles of these movies?

[Jack MacKelly]

Great list!

I wanted to share it with my Chinese friends' date=' but they don't know most of the english titles. Would it be possible to get the chinese titles of these movies?[/quote']

I think amazon or the imdb have translated titles for these films if you use their search engine, 新龍門客棧 New Dragon Gate Inn, A City of Sadness 悲情城市,

Springtime in a small town小城之春, Suzhou River 娄烨 苏州河, 臥虎藏龍 Crouching Tiger...you'll find much stuff from China, Taiwan and HK

[cui ruide]

Some mainland films I'd suggest:

The Goddess - an oldie, but a goldie--Shanghai in the 30s

Blind Shaft - a dark film touching on the issues of mining in modern china

In the Heat of the Sun - the other side of the Cultural Revolution you don't see

From Taiwan:

Millennium Mambo - a look at youth culture in Taipei, plus Shu Qi ain't hard to look at...

[Gary Soup]

Millennium Mambo - a look at youth culture in Taipei, plus Shu Qi ain't hard to look at

...especially with her clothes off.

Just to add a couple, I think Xiao Wu, which I saw recently for the first time, makes a powerful statement about moral bankruptcy in the era of market reform (with a great performance by a cast of non-professional actors).

As far as favorites go, I think Peacock will be on a lot of peoples' lists soon, if it isn't already.

[Hekate]

I had the opportunity to watch on big screen some classic Chinese movies in the 30s & 40s.

I was surprised by the quality of the cinematography and the originality of the camerawork by some of them. One that I really liked was Street Angel by Yuan Muzhi starring Zhou Xuan and of course The Goddess by Wu Yonggang starring Ruan Lingyu. I also loved Springtime in Small Town by Fei Mu (the remake by Tian Zhuangzhuang is very good too, different but at the same time with some similarities especially with some of the angle shots).

I've recently seen San Mao. I found sometimes really inspired by the expressionnists (the use of lights and shades, the facial expressions..) but also quite theatrical (and you can really feel that it's the adaptation of the cartoon). The end was added, the film was finished in August 1949...

I've seen also some contemporary films. I like Jia Zhangke, Yu Lik-wai, some of Wang Xiaoshuai, Beijing Bastard & East Palace West Palace by Zhang Yuan (I Love You & Green Tea was okay, but perhaps not as powerful than the 2 others), He Jianjun's lastest film... and more.

I really liked Suzhou River by Lou Ye, and from the 5th generation, my favourite is Farewell my Concubine by Chen Kaige (I also read the book which is a bit different).

Oh and I've also seen one of the greatest documentaries of today : Tiexi Qu by Wang Bing, it's a 9 hour documentary divided into 3 parts (Rust, Rails, Remnants).

At a filmfestival last year, I also saw a couple of recent Mainland Chinese DV films.

As for Taiwanese films, I must admit that I'm a Tsai Ming-liang fan but Hou hsiao-hsien is also a great director, his films involve the characters' stories into the big History.

For HK, I second the choice of King Hu (Raining in the Mountain is another fave of mine) & Center Stage by Stanley Kwan.

[Jack MacKelly]

very good list

[diff]

Hi,

is there anyone who could provide the Chinese names for the movies in the first post? My local shopkeeper told me that he can order almost any movies the next day - but the English titles are not much help for him.

Best regards,

Dan

[chengdude]

Hi, first thread-guy here, why not try searching the IMDb at http://www.imdb.com...Chinese films in their database usually include their original titles in Pinyin.

[dogwood457]

Hi There!

Finished reading this thread and found some good titles to look up.

Thanks for the info.

My favorite movies include

Postmen in the Mountain---subtitles are in Chinese with English displayed at the same time

which makes for a good study film

Temptress Moon---Gong Li

Shanghai Story

Raise the Red Lantern

Not one Less---Loved the young girls determination

Road Home

Just watched 2046 and found it interesting but not exceptional. Bought it primarily because of

my favorite singer Faye-Wong. I found her absolutely beautiful. Her part as an android and the movie itself would have benefitted without the mechanical movements. Hey it worked for the Terminator.

Looking forward to Memoirs of a Geisha---23 Dec over here.

CY