favourite Chinese film?

[Jack MacKelly]

I'm looking forward to Wong Kar Wai's new film, 2046

[Haoqide]

I have to cast my vote for Chungking Express, Hero, Once Upon a Time in China II, and Not One Less (zhang yimou).

If you haven't checked out Not One Less, you should. It's a masterpiece, not in the same way that I feel Chungking Express is a masterpiece, but in a totally different way. I think those 2 tie for my current favorites.

[beirne]

I'll vote for Shower. Regular people in a realistic situation. A serious movie with a sense of humor.

As a side point, the strangest movie Chinese movie I have seen is The Hole/The Last Dance. It has been a while since I've seen it, so I'll borrow a summary from the IMDB:

7 days to y2k. A rainy Taiwan is under the attack of a strange disease. Victims will behave like cockroaches. A grocer lives in an almost deserted building. A plumber leaves a hole in his floor and he starts voyeuring on the woman living downstairs. When the woman starts showing symptoms of the disease, her only hope seems to be the grocer.

This leaves out other aspects of the movie like constant rain and the musical numbers set to Grace Chang tunes. This movie isn't for everyone, but if you want something completely different this is a good one.

[Ken]

Of the many films mentioned in this thread, can anyone identify which are mandarin? which are cantonese?

Because I am trying to learn mandarin without the benefit of having a conversation partner, I am trying to find films in which mandarin--preferably very clear mandarin is spoken.

Thanks to all who have mentioned films.

[chengdude]

Any of the films mentioned are going to come with a selectable Mandarin-language track on their respective DVD's, but assuming you're a purist and wish to watch a film in its original language, the following will help/drive you crazy with your Mandarin studies:

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Farewell My Concubine

Life On A String

The Emperor and The Assassin

Together

Happy Times

To Live

Not One Less

The Road Home

Hero

Raise The Red Lantern

Big Shot's Funeral

Beijing Bicycle

Suzhou River

Shower

Flowers of Shanghai

A City of Sadness

The Puppetmaster

Zhou Yu's Train

Yi Yi

Platform

[Ken]

Thanks for posting the list. I continue to work my way through several of the films and will look for others which you have listed.

[ExpatObserver]

Li Gong's 1990 film JI Dou is my favourite. That Li Gong is a sexy kitten.

[J.B. Frog]

Li Gong's 1990 film JI Dou is my favourite

'Ju Dou', that is: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099902

[seagate]

My all time favorite Chinese films are:

1. 活着 (To live), directed by Zhang Yimou

2. 阳光灿烂的日子 (In the heat of the sun), directed by Jiang Wen

3. 变脸 (The king of masks), directed by Wu Tianming

[gingersoup]

Oh, you guys remind me so many great chinese movies I saw and love. Except thoes you mentioned above, any of you guys like the movie BLUSH(红粉)? I watched this movie during a study of contemporary chinese culture course.

[marcopolo79]

《搖啊搖，搖到外婆橋》"Shanghai Triad" is depressing, but it is still one of the most beautiful films I've seen. I also think 武士/Musa is a really good film, both for being more historically faithful than most Asian action flicks, and also for intense fight scenes, high production values, and excellent soundtrack.

It doesn't count as great cinema, but I found the top-notch special effects, the not so subtle lesbian overtures, and the overall campiness of 夕陽天使 to be immensely entertaining.

[Catdiseased]

Isn't Musa a Korean production? I know that Zhang Zi Yi played a character in that film, but apart from that...?

[marcopolo79]

我以為"武士"是一部中韓合作的電影.

I thought it was a Sino-Korean joint project, and could be listed under either.

[Jack MacKelly]

Seen some nice China films the other day,

Spring time in a small town - a nice drama film, well directed

Blackmask - Action film with Jet Li , Ching Wan Lau & Karen Mok

a pretty good action film

To live know also as Lifetimes & Huozhe - a really wonderful film with You Ge and Gong Li, very good !!

If you haven't seen it, then go watch it !

I also saw a bit of another film at a friends house but I can't really recall much of it ( had a bit of drink taken ) and I only saw some of the film, well this film is set back some hundreds of years ago and the picture looked very like those great costumes/props/buildings in films like Dragongate Inn or the Emperor & Assassin. There's a big battle that has been going on between two groups/kingdoms...the two kindoms seem to be at war with eachother constantly and the castles look wonderful in the picture....one general is a little fond of hunting deer with arrow....there's the main guy who kind of tries to break away from the whole scene and ends up going to some town/festival and meeting a lovely looking Lady/Empress. They meet each other & end up dance together, he does this crazy kind of dance that almost looks like some kind of taichi/kungfu moves, anyway they start to enjoy each others company and get closer...late, maybe a few days after in a dramatic twist a raiding group of soldiers attack the Empress/Lady ( who looked like Joan Chen - Twin Peaks / Mo li hua kai) she got her head cut of by some soldier on horseback. The main character tries to fight off the raiding soldiers/bandits, and later he feels sicked by the events.....he becomes reclusive/lonely and goes off to some mountain area and climbs until he meets some monk....

anyway I didn't see much else of this film but can somebody please let me know what it is , or what it might be? I've been wrecking my brain trying to think of it...sorry I can't be more descriptive as it was a few weeks back, and I was drinking

so I'm a bit unsure as to what I was looking at

[skylee]

Could it be 誘僧 (Temptation of a monk)? ->

http://members.tripod.com/leebikwah/film09a.htm

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1572522224/102-8060902-8004914?v=glance#product-details

This film has its flaws but I like it a lot. And I like the author Lilian Lee's works a LOT.

The story is about a very famous incident in high Tang Dynasty called 玄武門之變 -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1525&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

[Jack MacKelly]

Great Skylee !! I reckon that's the one, I got a good old memory flashback on the scenes from the film when I checked out your links.

It seemed a pretty good movie,

誘僧 I'll have to get that one and watch it again

[skylee]

Good. The colours in this film are as intense as in Zhang Yimou's films.

[Danski]

Anyone seen a film called ge ge 哥哥 (big brother)? It's about a boy from HK who goes to China in search of his big brother. One of my all time favourites but nobody else I know has heard of it. It's real slow and nothing major happens but the music scenery and mood are incredible.

Also loved The Road Home 我的父亲母亲

[skylee]

As I've said before, I am a big fan of Lilian Lee (李碧華). And here are some of the films which are based on her stories/books -

胭脂扣 (Rouge) (Actors - Anita Mui & Leslie Cheung, both passed away, alas)

秦俑 (A Terracotta Warrior) (Actors - Zhang Yimou (yeah) & Gong Li, you know who they are)

青蛇 (Green Snake) (Actors- Maggie Cheung, and you know her too, and others)

誘僧 (Temptation of A Monk) (Actors - Joan Chen and others)

霸王別姬 (Farewell to My Concubine) (you all know about this fim)

[gato]

I'll add my vote for

- The Blue Kite (蓝风筝) directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang (田壮壮) http://imdb.com/title/tt0107358/

- In the Heat of the Sun (阳光灿烂的日子) directed by Jiang Wen http://imdb.com/title/tt0111786/

- A Bright Summer Day (牯岭街少年杀人事件), directed Edward Yang (杨德昌) http://imdb.com/title/tt0101985/

The first two are great Cultural Revolution pics. The third is about Taiwan in the 1950s.