A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella

A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella 1995

7.70

This sequel to "Pandora's Box" continues director Jeffrey Lau's adaptation of the Buddhism saga "Journey to the West". Stranded five centuries in the past, Joker Monkey King must battle a variety of monsters, seductive women and super-powered villains to save the dying Pak Jing-Jing.

1995

A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box

A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box 1995

7.50

When the Goddess of Happiness tosses the Longevity Monk and his disciples out of heaven (because the Monkey King tried to attain immortality), the Monkey King is reincarnated as the Joker. He now spends his time chasing two jealous women. When one of them is dying, the Joker goes back in time in an attempt to save her.

1995

Red Sorghum

Red Sorghum 1988

7.20

An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.

1988

Ju Dou

Ju Dou 1990

7.20

A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy. Filmed in glowing technicolour, this tale of romantic and familial love in the face of unbreakable tradition is more universal than its setting.

1990

Warriors of Heaven and Earth

Warriors of Heaven and Earth 2003

6.30

A Chinese emissary is sent to the Gobi desert to execute a renegade soldier. When a caravan transporting a Buddhist monk and a valuable treasure is threatened by thieves, however, the two warriors might unite to protect the travelers.

2003

Shower

Shower 1999

7.00

An aged father and his younger, mentally challenged son have been working hard every day to keep the bathhouse running for a motley group of regular customers. When his elder son, who left years ago to seek his fortune in the southern city of Shenzhen, abruptly returns one day, it once again puts under stress the long-broken father-son ties. Presented as a light-hearted comedy, Shower explores the value of family, friendship, and tradition.

1999

The Horse Thief

The Horse Thief 1986

6.60

Devout Buddhists, Norbu and Dolma live with their young son Tashi in a clan in Tibet. Norbu is a highwayman. After Norbu is charged with stealing from the temple, he and his family are banished. Impoverished and marginalized, they can do little when their beloved son becomes ill. Tashi dies of a fever. After a second son is born, Norbu focuses his every action on keeping this child alive, seeking re-admission to the clan for his wife and child, then risking all to save them from isolation and starvation in winter.

1986

The Emperor's Shadow

The Emperor's Shadow 1996

7.30

Epic drama about China's first emperor (221 BC) who struggles to make his childhood best friend, now China's greatest composer, succumb to his will and compose a grand anthem to his exploits.

1996

Back to Back, Face to Face

Back to Back, Face to Face 1994

8.00

Wang Shuangli is Deputy Director of the local Cultural Centre, and hopes to be appointed Director. However Old Ma is brought in from the country and installed as Director. This starts a long train of events with Wang's cronies using the bureaucracy to try to oust the new director.

1994

Code Name: Cougar

Code Name: Cougar 1989

5.50

A commercial airliner on a routine flight between Taipei and Seoul is hijacked and taken to mainland China by the Taiwan Revolutionary Army Front. Chinese authorities cannot seize the plane because of the presence of an important business figure on board, but agree to cooperate with Taiwanese authorities to defuse the tense situation.

1989

Mama

Mama 1990

6.80

Often cited as China’s first independent feature film, this low-budget drama, filmed largely in the director’s Beijing apartment, depicts the life of a single mother (a topic considered taboo at the time) caring for her mentally challenged son. Shot with a documentary aesthetic that includes interviews with families of mentally challenged persons, the film helped kick-start the Sixth Generation of filmmakers (including Wang Xiaoshuai and Jia Zhangke) and their ethos of employing documentary realism to depict the true conditions of contemporary China.

1990

King of the Children

King of the Children 1987

7.00

An unschooled young man, one of the countless victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution, is laboring in the countryside when he is assigned to teach in a nearby school. Gradually, he abandons the Maoist textbook and encourages the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings.

1987

The First Emperor of China

The First Emperor of China 1989

4.30

This historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China’s vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.

1989

The Black Cannon Incident

The Black Cannon Incident 1985

7.90

A bumbling factory translator is suspected of industrial espionage after sending an innocent telegram that is intercepted by a militant snoop. Placed under investigation and reassigned to a less sensitive department but never informed of the reason for his demotion, he petitions to get his job back, sparking an increasingly obtuse series of Party meetings.

1985

Spicy Love Soup

Spicy Love Soup 1999

6.73

Six different episodes about different generations' relationships. Love can be sweet, sour, or spicy.

1999

Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker

Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker 1994

6.20

A woman inherits her father's fireworks factory, as he had no son. The business does well and everything works in an orderly fashion until one day, an itinerant painter is hired to decorate the doors and vases at the factory. The woman, forbidden to marry and thereby involve outsiders in the factory ownership, finds herself drawn to the headstrong painter. When they fall in love, the situation throws her entire life into disarray

1994

The Swordsman in Double Flag Town

The Swordsman in Double Flag Town 1991

6.50

Honoring his father's dying words, a young man comes to the dusty desert village of Double Flag Town to claim his bride. Everyone looks down upon him because he looks inept and ignorant. When he kills a man who is attempting to rape his bride, he provokes the wrath of the Lethal Swordsman who is the rapist's brother and also a famous killer. Will our hero choose to escape with his bride or face the Lethal Swordsman? A highly stylized martial-arts film, in the style of Sergio Leone meets Hiroshi Teshigahara.

1991

Life

Life 1984

5.60

Adapted from the novel with the same title. This is a tragedy that occurs in modern China. By a vivid description of the frustrated life story of Gao Jialin, a high school graduate who is first dismissed from teaching post and then enrolled as a journalist in the city and finally dismissed from the post and become a farmer again, this movie presents the young man as a serious issue of how to deal with their life.

1984

Quitting

Quitting 2001

6.60

An actor becomes increasingly introverted and psychotic and his entire family attempts to intervene.

2001

Wheat

Wheat 2009

6.40

"Wheat," is a historical action drama about the women left behind when their men have gone off to war -- and the lies they are told to keep them from knowing the awful truth.

2009