When her grandfather dies, 15-year-old Wei Wei (Xu Jiao) inherits his circus, particularly their star attraction: a baseball-playing gorilla, Ling Ling. Unfortunately, she also inherits his huge gambling debts and is only able to fend off the gangsters intent on taking over the circus, by signing Ling Ling over to a Korean baseball team. After […] Read more »
It’s well known that China’s spectacular transformation, from economic stagnation to explosive capitalistic prosperity has brought with it a fair degree of corruption and social tension. In many places government officials and the police have come to be known as corrupt; sometimes on a spectacular scale. This recent history comes to life while watching To […] Read more »
Hardly a jolly romp, Lu Chuan’s gorgeously shot drama remains to my mind the “best” film to tackle the Nanking Massacre. Most interesting is the decision to depict sympathetic Japanese characters as well as negative ones, rather than tarring them all with the same brush that is seen all too-often. Some have called this China’s […] Read more »
Jet Li back doing action? Sounds great, but Badges of Fury proves to be more a goofy comedy for his co-star Wen Zhang than a kung-fu packed homage to old school Hong Kong action. Despite its setting, this is aimed squarely at mainland audiences, shot in Mandarin with a mostly mainland cast. The results are […] Read more »
Mainland actress Zhao Wei’s directorial debut has proved a huge hit on the mainland, and for 90 minutes of its over-long 130 minutes it is a charming story of young love at university. However an extended coda set some years later all but squashes the life out of all that has come before it. Find […] Read more »
Andy Lau is part James Bond, part Ethan Hunt in so bad it’s almost worth watching spy thriller. Far and away the year’s most ridiculously stupidly incoherent blockbuster, and it came from China. Read more »
Venturing across the border I sought out the China version of Marvel’s Iron Man 3, complete with added Wang Quexi and Fan Bingbing. Was it worth it? Not at all. Read more »
The surprise champ at the Chinese Box Office, Tang Wei appears to be back in the mainland’s good books with this decent, but truth be told, fairly unexceptional comedy drama that sees her spoilt mistress head to the States when her rich lover gets her pregnant. There she – eventually – comes to find love […] Read more »
Newly restored by the HK Film Archive, this 1960 adaptation of Hector Malot’s novel Without Family, stars a young Josephine Siao Fong Fong as a young girl in search of her real parents. After being sold at birth, she is subsequently sold by her foster parents when they can no longer afford to keep her. […] Read more »
Johnnie To heads to the mainland for this tense, absorbing thriller starring the excellent Sun Hong Lei as a dedicated cop trying to take down a complex drug operation that stretches across both sides of the border. Louis Koo is the middle man forced to work with the cops, but tensions remain high, from the […] Read more »
Rapper-turned-filmmaker RZA writes, directs and stars as the titular hero of this passionate love letter to old school Chinese martial arts movies. It is widely known that the founder of Wu-Tang Clan is a huge fan and bona fide expert on Hong Kong and Chinese kung-fu Cinema, and he pours all that passion into this […] Read more »
I had little interest or faith in Stephen Chow’s latest retelling of the classic Chinese fantasy, but there is some enjoyment to be had. The story, which is essentially the origin story of monk Tripitaka, relies heavily on large CGI beasts fighting each other for extended periods of time. This isn’t ideal, especially when the […] Read more »
Xu Zheng writes, produces, directs and stars as Xu Lang, a scientist making a desperate dash to Thailand in order to track down his boss and secure the exclusive rights for a new super fuel he has invented. On his trail is a rival co-worker (Huang Bo), hoping to secure the rights for himself, and […] Read more »
Lu Chuan follows up his powerful City of Life and Death with this big-budget retelling of one of China’s many pivotal power struggles. Liu Ye, Daniel Wu and Chang Chen square off for control of the nation, but those unfamiliar with the historical facts will have a hard time following the numerous intertwining narratives. Multiple […] Read more »
After an extended hiatus we have returned! In our latest dispatch Fernando and I discuss the many cinematic delights of this year’s PiFan Film Festival in South Korea, highlightng films as diverse as Miike Takashi’s For Love’s Sake and Zal Batmanglij’s Sound Of My Voice. Enjoy! Podcast: Play in new window | Download Read more »