Introduction Why “The Chinese Cinema”? The question of why I named this project “The Chinese Cinema” and not something else has come up more than once since I adopted the name in 2017. The objection is that it flattens out the very real cultural, cinematic and political distinctions between the People’s Republic of China,
Bruce Lee Game of Death (Robert Clouse, 1978) Just the most remarkable collection of 1970s bodies on display: not just Bruce Lee, but Sammo Hung, Colleen Camp, and of course Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (whose body was, like Lee’s, also replaced by a double for a couple of early scenes). Each one iconic in their own way. An accidental
The Other Tony Leung Midnight Diner (Tony Leung Ka-fai, 2019) I am, as I suspect many people are, afflicted with an unquenchable fondness for movies about food. Close-ups of meat sizzling, the sound of tea being poured into a china cup, the crispy crunch of vegetables being chopped, it all triggers some kind of ASMR-like pleasure center deep in the
Tricky Brains Diao Yinan Review: The Wild Goose Lake [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/the-wild-goose-lake-diao-yinan-2019/] (2019) — September 23, 2019 Capsule Review: Black Coal, Thin Ice [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tricky-brains-capsule-reviews/] (2014) — June 7, 2014
Andrew Lau The Captain (Andrew Lau, 2019) Andrew Lau Wai-keung is perhaps the most representative Hong Kong director in the post-Handover era. An accomplished cinematographer dating back to the late 80s (most famously he shot Wong Kar-wai’s debut As Tears Go By and half of Chungking Express, and his first ever DP credit was for Ringo
Good Men, Good Women Johnny Ma Reviews: Old Stone [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/old-stone-johnny-ma-2016/] (2016) — December 3, 2016 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/good-men-good-women-capsule-reviews/]: To Live To Sing (2019)— October 4, 2019
Fallen Angels Ang Lee Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/ang-lee/]: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon-ang-lee-2000/] (2000) — August 28, 2013 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/ang-lee-capsule-reviews/]: Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) – May 5, 2018 Sense and Sensibility (1995) – August 13, 2015 Lust, Caution (2007) — November 5, 2019 List: Ang
Tricky Brains Derek Tsang Reviews: Soulmate [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/soulmate-derek-tsang-2016/] (2061) — June 4, 2013 Better Days [https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/contemporary-chinese-cinema-derek-tsang-s-better-days-has-finally-been-released-but-at-what-cost] (2019) — August 2, 2015
Wong Jing Enter the Fat Dragon (Wong Jing & Tanigaki Kenji, 2020) Things have been tough in Hong Kong lately. Months of protests over the lack of democracy and transparency in the Special Administrative Region sparked violent reprisals by police, with fears of the coronavirus outbreak on the Mainland only making things worse. The protests have split the entertainment community, with many
Ang Lee Ang Lee Capsule Reviews Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) – May 5, 2018 A nice movie. Basically a straight version of a family Lunar New Year comedy. All's Well Ends Well or Boys Are Easy for the international art house circuit. But with oh so much food. Added April 25, 2023: À la
Strange Tales Both Sides Now: Women in Chinese Film at the DC Chinese Film Festival This weekend, the (Washington) DC Chinese Film Festival [http://www.dccff.org/schedule.html], in partnership with The One International Women's Film Festival, presents a mini-festival focused on women in Chinese Cinema called “On Both Sides of the Camera” focusing on Chinese films by and/or about women.
Strange Tales Notes on Filmspotting’s Contemporary Chinese Cinema Marathon A few weeks ago, Adam and Josh at the Filmspotting [https://www.filmspotting.net/] podcast invited me to help curate a selection of 2010s Chinese-language movies for them to talk about on their show. I was more than happy to help, as I’ve been a fan of the show
Lou Ye The Shadow Play (Lou Ye, 2018) At this point the best advice I can give you, the prospective viewer of a Lou Ye movie, is this: don’t see it in a theatre, and if you must, sit as far away from the screen as possible. Possibly contemporary cinema’s most extreme abuser of the close-up,
Miike Takashi First Love (Miike Takashi, 2019) Every time I watch a Miike Takashi movie, I end up asking myself why I ever watch movies that aren’t Miike Takashi movies. That’s certainly the case with First Love, his latest, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year and opens next week at the Uptown. It’s
Diao Yinan The Wild Goose Lake (Diao Yinan, 2019) One of the most anticipated Chinese titles of this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival is Diao Yinan’s follow-up to his Berlin winning 2014 film Black Coal, Thin Ice. Like that film, The Wild Goose Lake is a moody Chinese noir, full of morose characters trapped in a world
Iwai Shunji The Case of Hana and Alice (Iwai Shunji, 2015) What do you do if you want to make a prequel to one of your best movies, one built as much around the performances of two terrific young actresses more than anything else, but a decade has passed and the actresses are now much too old to be playing the
Michelle Yeoh Michelle Yeoh Capsule Reviews Magnificent Warriors (David Chung, 1987) — December 20, 2013 A self-consciously Hollywood-esque period adventure with Michelle Yeoh as an Indiana Jones-inspired hero who helps a small town (set ostensibly somewhere like Bhutan) resist the Japanese with the help of Richard Ng and Derek Yee. Relentlessly-paced, with a series of show-stopping action
Kam Ka-wai Big Brother (Kam Ka-wai, 2018) Into the hallowed tradition of high school movies wherein juvenile delinquents are straightened out by an unconventional teacher steps none other than Donnie Yen, his furious fists solemnly taking up the mantle of Blackboard Jungle, Stand and Deliver, and Dangerous Minds. It’s clearly a project that means something to
Jet Li Jet Li Capsule Reviews Martial Arts of Shaolin (Lau Kar-leung, 1986) — June 18, 2014 Of interest for the early Jet Li performance and the location shooting in China. A glimpse of things to come in the move out of the Shaws studios and into the big, varied world. Lau Kar-leung keeps putting Li in
Josephine Siao Josephine Siao Capsule Reviews Jumping Ash (Josephine Siao & Po-chih Leong, 1976) — July 7, 2017 The intersection between Hollywood exploitation and the Hong Kong New Wave, though the former may be the accidental byproduct of watching a cropped and dubbed version of this, apparently made for some kind of TV broadcast. Co-directed and co-written
Winners & Sinners Josephine Siao Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/josephine-siao/]: The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/the-legend-of-fong-sai-yuk-corey-yuen-1993/] (Corey Yuen, 1993) – January 23, 2022 The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk II [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/the-legend-of-fong-sai-yuk-ii-corey-yuen-1993/] (Corey Yuen, 1993) – January 24, 2022 Capsule Reviews: [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/josephine-siao-capsule-reviews/] Jumping Ash (Josephine
Wu Jing Wu Jing Capsule Reviews Drunken Monkey (Lau Kar-leung, 2003) — July 8, 2013 Lau Kar-leung and Gordon Liu together for the last time, passing the torch to a new generation. Lau ends his final fight by grabbing a sword with his bare hand to prevent the killing of the villain. He spends so much of
Yuen Biao Yuen Biao Capsule Reviews Dreadnaught (1981) — June 24, 2013 I want to spend a month or five just watching all the movies where Kwan Tak-hing played Wong Fei-hung. There's only like 80 of them dating back to the late 1940s. Should be pretty easy to find. Weird seeing Yuen Biao, who played
Zhang Ziyi Zhang Ziyi Capsule Reviews House of Flying Daggers (2004) — August 6, 2014 Wife: Why are you watching House of Flying Daggers again? Me: It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it. I’ve watched a lot of martial arts and Hong Kong movies in the last couple of years and I’m curious
Winners & Sinners Zhang Ziyi Reviews: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon-ang-lee-2000/] (Ang Lee, 2000) — August 28, 2013 Hero [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/hero-zhang-yimou-2002/] (Zhang Yimou, 2002) — March 28, 2017 Sophie’s Revenge [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/sophies-revenge-eva-jin-2009/] (Eva Jin, 2009) — July 29, 2014 My Lucky Star [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-lucky-star-dennie-gordon-2013/
