What was the last Chinese film you watched?

[skylee]

I saw 王朝的女人·楊貴妃 on the internet yesterday. I enjoyed it, but don't think it is a good film. The English narration is odd, although the role of the Roman envoy is given proper weight. I think 黎明's acting is OK and 范冰冰 is beautiful. The story is OK, albeit very cliche. The quality of special effects (the background etc) look cheap, although there are many big names involved, like 和田惠美, 張叔平 and 張藝謀 etc. I think I might have liked the film better if I had watched it in a cinema. But if I had to pay for watching this film I might have found it unworthy of my time.

Anyways it has reminded me of 白居易's thousand-year old poem 長恨歌.

[mandel1luke]

Saw Hibiscus Town (芙蓉镇）on Youtube. Very harrowing. I think everyone should watch this movie (and not just Chinese). Some of the acting is out of this world (IMHO anyway). Jiang Wen is in it, one of his earliest roles. Highly recommended.

[Leiya]

Lady of the Dynasty starring fan bing bing - story of One of the four Chinese beauties... Yang Guifei that ended tragically. 

[NotChinese]

I love this film so much that I'm going to write it big, bold and red.

 

东方不败！

 

WATCH IT NOW! 

[eliaso]

I went to a movie theater yesterday to see 夏洛特烦恼 (Goodbye Mr. Loser) and I was properly entertained. Click the links with caution as they both pretty much give away the whole plot:

 

http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=PVCRQTmmr_cDrHDaOVfZmWfo_DQs4hZMk6Ee3xCfa2PWUy-674uYyEN0L8bY8r3tFhZF_CO7KiO48T1eXbPoDU7vpxK_zPK5SWPp1tf0nve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_Mr._Loser

[jbradfor]

Saw a trailer for The Assassin, coming to the USA.  Is it worth seeing?  Didn't find any references to it here, except post 512, which doesn't say if it's any good.

[gato]

jbradford,

The main thing going for it is the beautiful cinamatography. Otherwise, it's painfully slow, and I am usually able to tolerate slow movies.

[Chris Two Times]

eliaso,

 

I saw a movie poster for Goodbye Mr. Loser here in Beijing and I was intrigued, thinking it could be a movie I would be interested in. I'm glad to hear that it was entertaining.

 

The last Chinese movie I saw was 中国合伙人 (American Dreams in China) in a cinema in Chengdu when it came out in May 2013. I really enjoyed that movie. Well, I usually prefer the "quiet" films that tell a narrative and depict "regular" people's stories without all of the overhyped puffed-out chest fanfare of explosions, car chases, and shoot-em-up good guy/bad guy pseudodrama. Haha, I do want to watch Pulp Fiction again though...I digress.

 

Wow, it's been two years since I've seen a Chinese movie, time to change that. The ladyfriend will be happy--she's been wanting to go to the movies with me.

 

I was pleasantly surprised that I could read the subtitles and actually understand a fair bit of what was being said when I watched 中国合伙人. That definitely encouraged me and helped me realize that my listening ability isn't as poor as I think it is. I ended up taking HSK, Level 4 a year later in June 2014 and I actually scored best on the listening portion of that exam. I feel that was a wonderful breakthrough for me; my listening hasn't always been that encouraging.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[eliaso]

Chris Two Times,

 

it also seems to be a really popular film at the moment. Learned during the last few days that pretty much every Chinese person I know has already seen it. Maybe a good movie to see just for keeping up with current mainstream mainland culture, as well

[ouyangjun]

Just watched 绿茶 starring 姜文 and 赵薇。 A 2003 "arty" film. All things 姜文 are good, so suggest to watch it

[ouyangjun]

The wife is out of town, so it's movie night with tortilla chips, salsa, and beer. Just watched a Japanese movie, 13 Assassins, really good (English subtitles, although traveled to Japan many times, I don't understand a word).

Now watching a film on www.iqiyi.com. 姜文 (Jiang Wen) in 寻枪 (xun qiang) - missing gun. Per my previous posts, it's obvious I'm a big fan of 姜文 movies.

[Guest realmayo]

寻枪 -- I have this on DVD from a long time ago ... I really liked it, in fact I think I'll watch it again.

[somethingfunny]

I just watched The Assassin.  It is pretty slow and reminds me of a lot of European films I was watching around five years ago before I came to China in that respect.  If you don't mind the whole slow thing then it shouldn't be a problem.  The language is pretty inaccessible so unless you're a pro you'll need English subtitles.  Not that anyone really says much anyway.

 

As mentioned, the cinematography is quite exceptional and it made a nice break from some of the more 'wacky' wuxia movies I've seen which have characters purely for comic relief and all that kind of thing.  

 

Ultimately, you're looking at something very 'arthouse' for want of a better term.  This film gets 6.6 on imdb but universal acclaim from all the serious critics.  It recently came out top in Sight and Sound's yearly review.

[Lu]

I watched a bunch of Chinese documentaries at the documentary festival last week (and the week before).

 

A Young Patriot: boy is very 爱国, plans to go to uni then serve the country. Goes to uni and there gradually loses faith in country and party, although at the same time he still kinda loves both. The director said that although the boy himself didn't see himself as a representative of his generation, many young people who had watched it saw themselves in him.

 

Look Love 对看: follows a rich girl sent to a very prestigious boarding school by her absent mother and a poor boy living with his increasingly alcoholic and depressed father. Rather depressing, although the director said afterwards that he and his brothers are doing a bit better now. Interesting to see that despite the very different circumstances of both kids, what they really want and need is not money & what it brings but the love and attention of their parents.

 

The Road 大路朝天: we watch the building of a road in rural Hunan, with all the demolitions and bribery and non-paying of workers that entails. Infuriating to watch as person after person gets screwed over.

 

Chinese Verses 我的诗篇: introduces six worker-poets and their lives (including 徐立志). Very well-made, very slick, very good production values. I liked it the first time I saw it, but got to see it another time and a half and after a while it started to get too slick, to the point that I wondered how much of it was real and how much was staged (some of it was definitely staged).

 

And the one I liked best: Behemoth 悲兮魔兽. Coal mining in Inner Mongolia and the destruction it brings onto the land, the hellish circumstances of iron smelteries (is that the word?), the lung problems of the miners, and the ghost cities that it's all for. All without any narration, just some texts on the screen mostly from Dante's Divina Commedia. I can only recommend it if you have the patience for slow, arthousy movies, because it's very artistic and rather slow, but if you're up for that I really recommend it.

[ouyangjun]

Watched 港囧 (Lost in Hong Kong)...  Did not like it very much.  The best one of the 囧 movies was the original with 王宝强, the second one in Thailand was not as good as the original, but I at least enjoyed the hour and a half.... the latest one is not worth the investment of time in my opinion.  

 

It follows 徐峥 and 包贝尔 around Hong Kong, where 徐峥 is in the pursuit of his long lost love and 包贝尔 is trying to make a documentary of their life/trip, and they accidentally get caught up in a murder scheme...  a bit ridiculous, and the humor was not able to keep me engaged.

[imron]

The best one of the 囧 movies was the original with 王宝强

Nah, it was the one with Steve Martin and John Candy

[ouyangjun]

@imron - haha, nice.

[skylee]

I have just seen the HK film 十年 (Ten Years). Recommended.

This thread is relevant - http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/50775-ten-years-%E5%8D%81%E5%B9%B4/

[Christy]

I watched "亲爱的“, famous actress and actors played their role very well (赵薇、黄渤、佟大为...) . I like it a lot, because it's a film based on reality. And the movie talked about children trafficking in China... 

[Lu]

Saw Secret 不能说的秘密 yesterday, fun movie. I was quite surprised by the sudden plot twist halfway in and really enjoyed the battling pianos scene and the scene where Jay is playing piano as if his life depends on it in a building as it is being demolished. My friend remarked that you'd almost think they started with that scene and built the movie around it.

 

Also saw a few Chinese movies at the Rotterdam film festival earlier this month. Paths of the Soul, about a group of Tibetans who go on a pilgrimage to Lhasa, was very beautiful, but the one I liked best was Le Moulin 日曜日式散步者, about a group of surrealist poets in Taiwan in the 1930s. The whole movie was in Japanese (as that was what they spoke) and rather than telling the story with talking heads and some pictures and such, the movie basically steeped the viewer into those times and into the world of these poets, showing film clips from that era, but also art, poetry, books... Slow and long (almost 3 hours) but I really liked it.

 

Edit: fixed typo.