What was the last Chinese film you watched?

[Lu]

小城之春, 1948 movie recommended elsewhere on the forums. It's also on youtube in its entirety. Very nice movie: small, slow, but very enjoyable. It seems the main actress is often over-acting, but when we realised that she was probably from a tradition of silent movies, that made perfect sense.

[ouyangjun]

This weekend I'll be going to the movie theater to see 《白发魔女传之明月天国》 starring 范冰冰.  I gave my wife two options, the new 韩寒 movie 《后会无期》which is what I really wanted to see and 《白发魔女传之明月天国》which seemed like a good runner up.  The wife chose the runner-up, oh well, this Saturday is Chinese Valentines day, so need to make her happy.

[Yang Chuanzhang]

I saw 天註定 in a cinema as part of the Chinese Film Festival here in London a while ago. Not the best movie to practise Mandarin with, but I would still watch it again. I really liked that scene where Xiaoyu is going to the "massage parlour" and she walks past that fortune teller who just says "天註定，天註定" (which is a far better title than "A Touch of Sin" in my opinion).

[莱利89]

I just watched 全民目擊 (drama) and would say it was a good plot with some moral in the end. My Chinese is still beginner so I had trouble with many of the words but I caught some. 

[ouyangjun]

Originally we were supposed to go to the theater to see 《白发魔女传之明月天国》 today, but it got pretty poor reviews, so we went to see 韩寒's new movie 《后会无期》 instead.  I enjoyed it.

[traunk]

I watched 催眠大師 last weekend. I liked it a lot. It had a good story, and some great special effects.

[skylee]

I saw the Taiwanese film 等一個人咖啡 today. I think it is very entertaining. It was nice to listen to the Taiwan accent. But I found the young actors' pronunciations a bit unsettling, especially the way they say 人 (I have accepted the Taiwan "yi" and "wu", but not "ren" like that).

Last week I saw a HK film called 失戀急讓. I think it is ok, though I don't particularly like it. Of these two films I like 等一個人咖啡 better.

[ouyangjun]

I've been sick all day today, so I decided to watch a handful of movies...

 

魔警 - just okay

催眠大师 - a little better than okay, but not great

无极 - great movie from 陈凯歌, highly recommended

人间 小团圆 - this movie was pretty good.  One of those movies that is super slow with little happening, but kept me interested for an hour and a half

[heifeng]

《隐形的翅膀》

 

And apparently this actress雷庆瑶 was one of the women on 非诚勿扰 for a while：　2012年3月，雷庆瑶参加《非诚勿扰》的节目一经播出，感动了所有观众。

 

I know I saw her on 非诚勿扰 first and then just happened to see this movie one day on TV...

[victorhart]

I’ve watched 27 films in Mandarin since I began my experiment 7 months ago. Twenty-one of these are Chinese movies, while six are dubbed Hollywood productions for kids. I would recommend 17 of these Chinese films, and strongly recommend 10: Hero, Journey to the West, Shower, House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Shanghai Triad, The Emperor and the Assassin, A Touch of Sin, The Road Home, and Fearless.

I would recommend these movies to anyone who likes good cinema, but think it would be a real shame if any student of Mandarin did not watch these 10 movies. My truly short list—movies I would rate among my favorites regardless of language—are Hero and Journey to the West, but a strong runner up is House of Flying Daggers, namely for the visuals, while Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Shower are both just very good original cinema.

[Juliette (法珠雷)]

"白日焰火" Black Coal, Thin Ice : thoroughly enjoyed it, great atmosphere and acting , and the political message behind it was subtly conveyed.

[danielvesey1990]

I watched a film called The Destiny, 2014 recently. It might interest people to watch it as it is all available on Youtube. It is very low budget but it is interesting to see as it is nostalgic to traditional Chinese weddings and you can also use it as a way of practicing Mandarin

 

<Admin edit: removed gratuitous link to own site>

[danielvesey1990]

I would also thoroughly recommend watching Zhangke Jia's latest film A touch of sin which is one of the best films I have ever seen. He really fights for freedom of self expression in Chinese film and pushes boundaries. I am sure that this film annoyed the authorities because it differs from all Chinese films in that it is critical of their society. 

 

I also watched one of his previous ones Still life 2006 not too long ago and that was absolutely amazing. I am sure many of you have heard of it, if not watched it, but if you haven't it is definitely one to watch. I also reviewed this film so check it out, even just for the pictures! 

<Admin edit: removed gratuitous link to own site>

[gato]

I just saw “黄金时代”, about the life of the novelist 萧红，starring 汤唯. Both 汤唯 and the movie were quite brilliant.

[skylee]

Ah, Ann Hui.

[gato]

Yes, Ann Hui.

[victorhart]

The last movie I saw in Mandarin was Dragon (Wu xia), and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It’s not only gripping and highly entertaining, it’s incredibly well put together on many levels, and I really liked the way it broached some existential / philosophical questions surrounding people’s ability to change, free will vs karma, animalistic vs spiritual nature of humans, civilization and barbarianism.

 

I watched the version that was abridged for Western audiences and really enjoyed the pace of it, although I hope at some point to watch the complete, original version. Anyway, I would currently rate it alongside Journey to the West and Hero as my personal favorites thus far.

 

Previously, I watched The Story of Qiu Ju, which I would strongly recommend as a good movie and for the insights it provides into Chinese culture.

 

Before that, per recommendations on this forum, I finally watched The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman. They are both definitely good movies, just not my favorite genre personally.

 

I’ve now watched 33 movies in Mandarin and am attaching my updated spreadsheet, in case anyone is interested.

chinese_film_table.xlsx

[skylee]

I have just seen 撒嬌女人最好命 (Women who flirt). I chose it because the director is 彭浩翔, who directed 志明與春嬌 and the sequel 春嬌與志明. I also lIke the two leading actors 周迅 and 黃曉明. I think the film is pretty entertaining. And while watching I thought, "at last a delightful mainland film" (though I am not sure if it can be categorised as a mainland film). The film is modern and well put together, though the story and the characters are quite cliche. And usually 周迅's role would be played by actresses like 楊千嬅 or 鄭秀文. But anyways I like this film. And it seemed that my fellow audience enjoyed it too, judging from the laughter in the cinema.

[ouyangjun]

Went to the movie theater here today and saw the recently released Jiang Wen 姜文 film 一步之遥 “Gone with the Bullets".  It was really good.  Directed by Jiang Wen 姜文 and starring Ge You 葛优, Zhou Yun 周韵, and Shu Qi 舒淇.  It is a very Jiang Wen type of film...  If you've seen his 2010 release "Let the Bullets Fly" 让子弹飞, and his earlier release "The Sun Also Rises" 太阳照常升起 you will know what I mean when I say Jiang Wen style.  

 

"Gone with the Bullets" takes place in 1920's Shanghai.  It's actually a really simple story, but Jiang Wen weaves it into an interesting tale of love, comedy and tragedy spanning the better part of 2.5 hours. 

[Jack MacKelly]

倩女幽魂

 

very entertaining, watched this again recently