China is the home of the largest movie & drama production complex and film studios in the world, the Oriental Movie Metropolis and Hengdian World Studios, and in 2010 it had the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2012 the country became the second-largest market in the world by box office receipts.
Based on a novel by Nobel Laureate Mo Yan, this film takes place in the rural village of Shandong during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The story follows the protagonist Jiu’er (九兒) as she is married off to the aging owner of an alcohol plant. As the film goes on, a complicated love story with a local peasant arises, as well as resistance against the Japanese, who march into town. This is one of Zhang Yimou’s earlier films, and is a tear jerker. Be ready. It was filmed in Chinese with English subtitles.
Starting in the 1980s, Chinese cinema has gone through several phases trying to understand the tumultuous time in China’s history between the reign of the last emperor and the rise of Modern China. From the crazy years of China’s Cultural Revolution to its frenetic industrial rise, films have tried to make sense of it all. Here are 13 movies that will help you understand China, its history and its people a bit better.
Andy Lau returns in his role as the Casino Tycoon of Macau, Benny Ho. We join Ho 18 years after the last film as he has established his Casino empire in Macau and is living with his daughter and wheelchair-bound wife. When his daughter brings home a young man eager to make headway in the Casino empire Ho becomes embroiled in a plot to destroy his family.
Ning Choi-san, a timid debt collector, goes to a rural town to collect debts but fails and runs out of money. He has no choice but to take shelter in a deserted temple in the forest on the outskirts of the town. That night, he meets a beautiful and alluring young maiden, Nip Siu-sin, and falls in love with her. In the morning, however, after he recalls that night's events, he becomes increasingly fearful and superstitious because Yin Chik-ha, a Taoist priest, told him that the people he saw in the temple are ghosts. That night, he returns to the temple and confirms his theory that Nip is actually a ghost.
Yan Chixia's master sent him to Black Hill to train in the arts of demon hunting. After capturing an attractive female demon, Nie Xiaoqian, Yan falls in love with her and realises that his master sent him there to make him learn how to control his emotions. Xiaoqian also falls in love with Yan, and while he feeds her candy, she says she will fall in love with anyone who fed her candy. After some time, she begs him to kill her because humans and demons are not supposed to be together. Yan stabs her with his magic dagger, which does not kill Xiaoqian, but causes her to lose her memory of their relationship. Yan arrives late for a battle against the Tree Demon, Laolao, and sees that several of his fellow demon hunters have already fallen. The last one, Xia Xuefenglei, embeds his arm into Laolao and tells Yan to chop it off, thereby banishing Laolao from the mortal world.
Chow was born in Hong Kong on 22 June 1962 to Ling Po Yee (凌寶兒), an alumnus of Guangzhou Normal University, and Chow Yik Sheung (周驛尚), an immigrant from Ningbo, Zhejiang. Chow has an elder sister named Chow Man Kei (周文姬) and a younger sister named Chow Sing Ha (周星霞). Chow's given name "Sing-chi" (星馳) derives from Tang dynasty (618–907) Chinese poet Wang Bo's essay Preface to the Prince of Teng's Pavilion.[8] After his parents divorced when he was seven, Chow was raised by his mother.[8] Chow attended Heep Woh Primary School, a missionary school attached to the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China in Prince Edward Road, Kowloon Peninsula. When he was nine, he saw Bruce Lee's film The Big Boss, which inspired him to become a martial arts star. Chow entered San Marino Secondary School, where he studied alongside Lee Kin-yan. After graduation, he was accepted to TVB's acting classes.