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Chinese Films/Themes by Title

Title	Call ID #	Description
The Blue Kite	VCH 303	Tian Zhuangzhuang. Mandarin (English subtitles) 138mins. 1994. Banned by the Chinese government, The Blue Kite provides a unique window into contemporary Chinese life and politics. During the Cultural Revolution in China a man called Teitou, his family and his friends all experience the political and social upheavals that shook continent. This scathing indictment of life under Chairman Mao was banned along with the filmmaker.
Beijing Bicycle	DVCH 805	Wang Xiaoshuai. Mandarin (English subtitles) 113 mins. 2002. Persistence pays off for country boy Guei (Cui Lin) when he lands a coveted job as a bicycle messenger on the teeming streets of Beijing. The silver mountain bike he now rides will be his -once he earns 600 yuan. But just as he makes his final payment, the bicycle is stolen! On the other side of the town, Beijing schoolboy Jian (Lee Bing) longs for a bicycle so he can ride around with his girlfriend Qin (Zhou Xun). Tired of banking on his father's empty promises, he steals a sum of money and buys a used bicycle -the bicycle that once belonged to Guei. After endless searching, Guei finally tracks down his bicycle -but there are complications. A tug-of-war breaks out with Jian. Then, they try working out a compromise. But the bargain they make takes them to an unexpected journey -a voyage of self-discovery that neither one of them will ever forget.
C'est La Vie Mon Cheri	DVCH 801	Lee/Universe Laser and Video Co., LTD. Chinese (English subtitles)
Crows & Sparrows	VCH 306	Zheng Junli. Mandarin (English subtitles) 108 mins. 1940. The most renowned of China's social films of the 1940s, Crows and Sparrows is hailed by film historian Jay Leyda as "a milestone in Chinese film history." Capping the richly creative period of pre-revolutionary Chinese cinema, the film is also a landmark in Neo-Realism (a major movement within European cinema of the era). A greedy landlord tries to sell off his Shanghai boarding house and emigrate to Taiwan in advance of the expected Communist takeover. His tenants (including a teacher and his family, a peddler, a clerk, and some students) struggle valiantly to keep their homes, triumphing when the landlord is forced to flee the approaching Red Army.
Eat Drink Man Woman	DVCH 802	Ang Lee. Mandarin (English, French & Spanish subtitles) 124 mins. 1994. Trouble is cooking for widower and master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) who's about to discover that no matter how dazzling and delicious his culinary creations might be they're no match for the libidinous whims of his three daughters. A master in the kitchen, Chu is at a loss when it comes to the ingredients of being a father. Every Sunday, he whips up a delicacy of dishes for his ungrateful daughters, who are so self-consumed that they don't see his attempt at showing them love -gastronomically. So, as relationships sour and communications break down. Chu concocts a sure-fire recipe that will bring his family back together: He creates his own love affair to rival his daughter's affections!
Farewell My Concubine	VCH 302	Chen Kaige. Chinese (English subtitles) 157 mins. 1993. This complex story of passion and political intrigue won the Best Film Award at Cannes and is an ambitious historical epic of China in the 20th Century. It follows the enduring and is an ambitious historical epic of China in the 20th Century. It follows the enduring friendship between two opera stars in old Beijing. As they prosper, the political upheavals of war and revolutions take their toll. When a young prostitute threatens their professional and personal union, it becomes just one of many trials which test the enduring strength of art and love that bind these two men.
Hong Kong 1941	DVCH 800	Lueng Po Chi. Chinese (English subtitles) 97 mins. 1993. International sensation Chow Yun Fat (John Woo's The Killer and Hard-Boiled, The Replacement Killers) and Cecilia Yip star in this compelling romance drama set in war-torn Hong Kong, on the eve of the Japanese invasion in 1941. After arriving from the North, Chow befriends a local coolie (Alex Man). Their friendship is tested when they both fall in love with a terminally ill girl (Yip) whom Chow saved from the streets. In the end, one of them will make the ultimate sacrifice.
In the Mood for Love	DVCH 806 A	Wong Kar-wai. Cantonese & Shanghainese (English subtitles) 98 mins. 2000. Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are polite and formal -until a discovery about their respective spouses sparks an intimate bond. At once delicately mannered and visually stunning. Wong Kar-wai's IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments of time.
In the Mood for Love (Documentary)	DVCH 806 B	Wong Kar-wai. Cantonese & Shanghainese (English subtitles) 98 mins. 2000. Wong Kar-wai's documentary of the making of the film. Interviews with Wong Kar-wai. Toronto International Film Festival press conference with stars Maggie Cheung Man-yuk &Tony Leung Chiu-wai. Essay by film scholar Gina Marchetti illuminating the movie's unique setting. Trailers, TV spots, electronic press kit & promotional concepts. Photo gallery. Biographies of key cast & crew.
The Joy Luck Club	VENG 331	Wayne Wang. English. 139 mins.1993. The stories of four women and their mothers are interwoven in this moving tale of exile, loss and new beginnings. Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club is well realized in this careful adaptation certain to touch everyone.
Ju-Dou	VCH 300	Zhang Yimou. Mandarin (English subtitles) 98 min. 1990. They were destined, if not doomed, to be together. She was the mill owner's battered bride. He was his overworked nephew. Out of their plight grew a profound and powerful secret love. Their hearts were free, but only murder could free the lovers from the tyranny of the mill owner. Or could it?
To Live	DVCH 807	Zhang Yimou. Mandarin Chinese (English Subtitles) 133 mins. 1994. If To Live's, as Roger Ebert says, "conceals a universe," then watching this engrossing, exhilarating and extravagant film surely reveals one. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival, this epic film from China's most renowned director, Zhang Yimou (Oscar nominee for Ju Dou and Raised the Red Lantern), unveils a world worthy of "a Chinese Gone With the Wind" (The New York Observer)! Set against four decades of Chinese political turmoil, To Live follows the lives of one couple, Fugui and Jiazhen (Ge-You and Gong-Li), as they struggle to survive their own changing station within the upheaval. As the years go by, bringing bizarre twists, tragic loses…and profound hope, Fugui and his.
The Last Emperor	VENG 301	Bernardo Bertolucci. English 164 mins. 1987. He was crowned Lord of 10,000 years. Son of Heaven. The supreme ruler of half the world's population. He was three years old. Thus begins the extraordinary true story of Pu Yi, who, in 1908, toddled to the Imperial Dragon Throne to become China's last emperor. Wealthy has-been at 6, deposed playboy at 19, puppet, prisoner, and finally, a palace gardener: it's an epic adventure, beginning to end. With John Lone as the emperor who fell from grace. Peter O'Toole, his kindly Scottish tutor. And the lovely Joan Chen as his perfect empress, later ruined by opium.
The Matrix	DVENG 800	Wachowski. English. 136 mins. 1999. Perception: Pur day-in, day-out world is real. Reality: That world is a hoax, an elaborate deception spun by all-powerful machines of artificial intelligence that control us. Whoa. Mind-warp stunts. Techno-slammin' visuals. Mega-kick action. Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne lead the fight to free humankind in The Matrix, the see-and-see-again cyber-thriller written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Bound). The story sears, the special effects stake out new movie making territory -the movie flat-out rocks.
The Road Home	DVCH 803	Zhang Yimou. Mandarin (English, French subtitles) 89 mins. 2000. From the award-winning director of such acclaimed films as Raise the Red lantern and Fu Dou comes a romantic drama whose story is as beautiful as the cinematography. The Road home will take you on an unforgettable journey filled with romance, culture and tradition. When his father dies, Luo Yusheng returns from the city to his childhood village where his father was the much-revered local teacher. But what begins as a short trip to bury his father becomes much more when he learns his mother wants a traditional burial for her beloved husband. She wants to have him carried by foot, honoring the belief that a body returned this way will never forget the road home. As Yusheng enlists the men needed to fulfill her wishes, the story of his parents' love affair unfolds. In the days of arranged marriages, he learns theirs was the first based on love.
Shower	DVCH 804	Zhang Yang. Mandarin (English, Spanish & French subtitles) 94 mins. 2000. When successful businessman Da Ming is summoned by his younger brother to come home to his father's old -style bathhouse in Beijin, he can't wait to return to his fast-paced modern life. But time amongst the crazy cast of characters that frequent the bathhouse give him a new appreciation for traditional old ways. When a tragic event causes sudden change, Da Ming must choose between the prosperous life he's made for himself and his responsibility to his family and his heritage.
Spring Festival	VCH 305	Jian-Zhong Huang. 100 mins. This film portrays the reunion of a contemporary rural Northern Chinese family, the Chengs, for the New Year's festivities. As the five adult Cheng children arrive in turn at the family home, each with a spouse or lover in tow, the mix of problems, frustrations, and longings thickens. Spring Festival evocatively depicts inter-generational tensions, sibling rivalries, and the waning of traditional cultural practices in a fast-changing society.
To Live	VCH 304	Zhang Yimou Chinese (English subtitles) 133 mins. 1994. Set against four decades of Chinese political turmoil, To Live follows the lives of one couple, Fugui and Jiazhen as they struggle to survive their own changing station either the upheaval. When Fugui gables away his family's fortune and loses their home, he is left with nothing but a trunkful of puppets by which to make his living. But his ability to entertain with the puppets lands him at first in the company of the nationalist army...and then the Red army. Banned in its home country for its devastating look at Chinese life, To Live is a must-see film.
Yellow Earth	VCH 301	Chen Kaige: Mandarin (English subtitles) 89 mins. 1984. A striking collaboration between two Fifth Generation Chinese filmmakers, director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) and Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern) who photographed the film in deep stylized colors. Set in spring 1939, a young soldier researching folk songs enters a small community and gets emotionally entangled with an old man, his 14 year old daughter and his younger son. The film's conflict is set up by the younger woman's attraction to the soldier. With Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tan Tuo and Liu Qiang.