China Romance
All About China => Chinese Culture And Festivals => Topic started by: Ed W on August 19, 2009, 11:13:13 am
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Last night I was about the call it and hit the bed and thought I'd just surf through the program listing on the tv just to see what's on and came across a movie called "Lost in Beijing" on the Sundance channel. I had only missed about the first 20minutes or so but came in on this wild love scene in the shower between the husband and wife. Of course now I gotta see what this is about.
So I found it to be a up and down kinda movie but was fascinated with the intricacies of their culture, as I always have, and much of the interaction going on between the cast members throughout the movie. It wasn't rated really high amungst movie critics but I found it very interesting. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny but I couldnt turn it off. If you can get your hands on it, it's in english subtitles so you'll have to deal with that and the dialog moves quick so you'd better be a quick reader or have a hand on the reverse button.
Here's the link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Beijing
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Ed,
I have watched that movie 3 times now. I have my DVR set on the Sundance channel all the time. I look for all Asian movies. There are quite several very good movies on there. Lost in Beijing was very good!
I check weekly ahead of what I should tape. BTW every Sunday evening Midnight mountain time here on the Sundance channel the have what they call "Asia Extreme" If you are a horror movie fan take a look at some of the movies. I think I have 15 movies saved on my DVR that are of Asian types. I enjoy every once in awhile watching them again.
When I get home this evening I will send you some names of my favorites. Many great movies out there. I just joined a Asian movie club that sends you Movies through the mail much like blockbuster and netflix. If you want the info I will send when I get home.
Have a good one everyone!
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Manya years ago (10 ?) i saw this movie called "Road Home". It is one of Ziyi Zhang first films. She has later played in more famous movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but no martial arts in Road Home, it is a slow movie. Very nice filmed.
Here you can read more about it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235060/
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i've seen that, daghoi. you're right. it played out...long...like a
Kurosawa movie. i dozed and had to go back and pick up the
parts I missed. still, a movie worth watching.
one lady I was writing to recommended that I watch Ang Li's,
'Lust Caution' which was quite steamy in some parts and I
understand has been banned in China as a result. (wonder
how she watched it). this one is pretty good, also
I enjoyed "Raise the Red Lantern", "Eat Drink Man Woman",
to name a couple more.
I laughed my butt off watching Kung Fu Hustle but that's quite
a different type of film.
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The Road Home is awesome. It is a MUST WATCH movie.
My other top favorite Chinese Movies include:
Then Banquet / Legend of the Black Scorpion
Curse of the Golden Flower
Hero
Fearless
The Myth
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Once Upon a Time in China I-V
The Last Emperor
You will learn a lot about Chinese history, culture, and such from watching these movies. I would go so far as to call them MUST-WATCH movies!
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Just looking through some movies? There was a movie I was looking for that I seen but can't remember the title? But anyway came across this, I haven't seen it yet but seemed fitting for some wondering in the forum here.
How Far Do Leaves Fall? (2007)
'How Far Do Leaves Fall?' is part of a wider oral history project by CMHA. It presents a fascinating personal history of Chinese immigration in London. How did it feel leaving your home and arriving in a strange country where you didn't speak the language? Can you truly live comfortably, embracing all elements of your heritage, whilst living in a modern British society? In oral history interviews Chinese immigrants discuss issues of community, belonging and assimilation, whilst the second and third generations describe life between these two rich and vibrant cultures and what their roots and heritage mean to them.
Found the other movie I was looking for "Shanghai Kiss" the movie makes me think of Chong. :icon_biggrin:
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"The Road Home" is a must see. I asked my lady what movies she watched and she recommended; "If you are the one". I found this very interesting, as it is a Chinese guy looking for a wife on-line. Even this guy struck out many times.
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I know it's been mentioned, but if you like your Chinese epics, Hero is amazing, also (i think most would have seen this) House of flying daggers, and Red Cliff are fantastic and very visual films. Another film i liked is called Dumplings. And although not Chinese, Mongol is good. Personally i love Japanese horror, if so check out The Ring, and The grudge. (not the rubbish American remakes) And if you like Anime, then Akira is a classic, along with Fist of the North Star, and The Ninja Scrolls. Happy viewing
Andy.
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I know it's been mentioned, but if you like your Chinese epics, Hero is amazing, also (i think most would have seen this) House of flying daggers, and Red Cliff are fantastic and very visual films. Another film i liked is called Dumplings. And although not Chinese, Mongol is good. Personally i love Japanese horror, if so check out The Ring, and The grudge. (not the rubbish American remakes) And if you like Anime, then Akira is a classic, along with Fist of the North Star, and The Ninja Scrolls. Happy viewing
Andy.
Andy, I agree, House of Flying Daggers and Red Cliff are in my top 10 movies of all time. Mongol is also great, gives you some great history of North China too.
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Dumplings...hahaha I bet Martin watched that and drooled...lol:icon_biggrin::icon_biggrin:
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I just caught another decent movie on Sundance channel. "The Home Song Stories". Here's the brief.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452631/
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Ed
I saw that one also and thought it was pretty good. has anyone seen
So Close its an action film about 2 sisters and the lady cop chasing
them their dad invented a security system that would revelutionize
the world. comedy in it also thought that was entertaining also.
Ted
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I just looked up "So Close" in my channel guide on the tv and it's not listed. I'll have to get creative to find it.:icon_biggrin: Thanks for the suggestion.
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We watched a movie, an old one called Nanking, very good and explains alot.
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House of flying daggers and Hero were directed by Zhang Yimou, one of the 'Fifth' generation of Chinese directors. He is a former cinematographer, which shows in the amazing visual textures in his fims. He did the cinematography for another of that new generation of Chinese fimmakers, Chen Kaige. Then he struck out on his own in the late eighties and directed some amazing films.
I would strongly recommend Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, To Live and The Road Home, all Zhang Yimou films. Red Sorghum was the first major role of the actress Gong Li, and she was like his muse, appearing in many subsequent films. Later on he worked with Zhang Ziyi in the recent blockbusters.
His films share an amzing sense of colour, composition, tragic and historical themes and just pure, visceral storytelling.
Go and watch them. You will be blown away.
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I watched a movie on the ferry to Zhongshan and again on the ferry back to Hong Kong. It was about a young girl who befriended and fell in love with a martial arts guy. A true tragedy. She dies at the end and he dies soon after and they are buried in each other's arms. I couldn't understand a word but it was a good movie and the acting was top notch. I wish I knew the name.
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I like too add few movies. Beijing Bicyle is interesting. It shows me places in Beijing that I would never see by bus or by car. If you are looking for a romantic movie, Turn Left, Turn Right is very good. It reminds me of Cinema Paradiso. It was never released in USA, but you can watch it on youtube. Not one less was the first Chinese movie I watched. If any of you are teachers or do volunteer work, it sure will make you cry.
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I know there is also that movie, who was available in China, beginning of October, when there was the 60 years Republic of China's birthday :
The Founding of a Republic (Jian guo da).
I did not see that movie yet, but I will watch it (if possible in the following days, just have to find some "free time" :) )
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the founding was a good movie recomend seeing it
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I've seen "Lost in Beijing" and it is one of my favourite Chinese movies also.
For those interested in modern Chinese history and the changes that have occurred in the last few decades, I recommend "Farewell, My Concubine", which stars Gong Li (when she was young and in her prime!) and is banned in China, it follows the relationship of two Beijing Opera singers through the 20th century, from the 1920s to the Japanese occupation, Cultural Revolution and the 1970s.
Also "Electric Shadows" is a good movie set in Ningxia and also goes through different eras in modern Chinese history.
"Jasmine Women" stars Zhang Ziyi (a very famous Chinese actress) and like the other flicks (must be a common theme in Chinese movies to jump through various time periods) also shows events in the 1930s, 1950s and 1980s, and is about three different generations of women growing up through China's turbulent 20th century.
I am not sure how accurate a reflection these types of drama movies are on Chinese culture. But sometimes it is quite bizarre and often disturbing the way people treat each other in these films, must have some unique Oriental customs!
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i saw the one with Zhang Ziyi and thought it was pretty good
if you can see it i recomend it for watching
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I want to see the movie Hua Mulan. I don't know if it has English sub titles. I can't find it online, in the usual places that I watch movies.
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Martin,
has english sub titles and is scheduled to be released in your part
in july of this year. this is the one from last year not the one made a few
years ago
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Martin,
I checked my regular place and they don't have it, but I'm sure I've seen it in one of the chinese malls nearby to my place...
1) Pacific Mall
2) First Markham Place
3) Mall at Brimley and Sheppard Avenue East (I don't even know the name of this mall in english)
One of those three places will have it. Next time I'm at any of them, I'll see if I can find it for you.
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If anyone in Australia reads this - "Lost in Beijing" is on SBS2 this Friday (16th Apr) at 9pm.
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Just realised another movie everyone might want to see... Confucius. Was released sometime in January... might be good.
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China's Zhang says Bale to star in Nanjing project
By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press
1 hr 5 mins ago
BEIJING – Christian Bale will star in Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou's new project about 13 young prostitutes who help save compatriots from Japanese troops rampaging Nanjing, the latest film exploring a World War II-era atrocity that stirs nationalism in China.
Bale, currently co-starring in the boxing drama "The Fighter," will portray an American priest in the movie, which is expected to start filming in Nanjing on Jan. 10, the Chinese director told reporters Wednesday.
The film is an adaptation of a Chinese-language novel by contemporary writer Yan Geling about 13 sex workers in Nanjing who volunteered to replace university students as escorts for invading Japanese soldiers. In the novel, the American priest presides over a Catholic church that shelters a group of prostitutes and young female students during the invasion.
Historians say the massacre, known in the West as the "Rape of Nanking," resulted in the slaughter of at least 150,000 civilians. China puts the number killed at 300,000, making it one of the worst atrocities of the WWII era.
Bale was picked because of his versatility and dedication to his roles, Zhang said, noting he was impressed by the research Bale did into the history of the massacre.
"I gave him the names of some books that he should read about the Nanjing massacre," the director said. "When I went to see him, I saw those books were lying open on his table, and I was very touched."
The $90 million production is slated for global release next December. It's being filmed with a mix of English and Chinese spoken.
The book's title translates roughly as "The 13 Women of Nanjing" but the film is going by the working English title of "Nanjing Heroes."
In making a movie about Japan's wartime atrocities in Nanjing, Zhang joins several others in exploring a sensitive topic that triggers nationalist sentiments in China. Other recently released films about the Japanese invasion include Lu Chuan's "City of Life and Death" and Florian Gallenberger's "John Rabe."
Zhang said he hopes to bring a fresh approach to the topic in telling the story through a woman's perspective. He also hoped to enhance the foreign appeal by casting Bale, a Hollywood star who played Batman in "The Dark Knight."
"We've made many, many Nanjing movies ... but they are mostly like we're talking to ourselves. A lot of young people in Western countries might not know about it," Zhang said. "So I think that perhaps by doing it this way... could let maybe 100 or 200 million young audiences watch this film and maybe then they'll know what happened in Nanjing in 1937."
Zhang, whose credits include "Raise the Red Lantern" and "To Live," is of the first modern Chinese directors to make his name in the West.
His recent releases include "A Simple Noodle Story," an adaptation of the Coen brothers' 1984 movie "Blood Simple," and "Under the Hawthorn Tree," a love story set in China's decade-long ultra-leftist Cultural Revolution.
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China's future leader a WWII movie buff: leaked document
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101207/od_afp/usdiplomacywikileakschinapoliticsoffbeat (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101207/od_afp/usdiplomacywikileakschinapoliticsoffbeat)
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Rhonald I read the article that you posted the link to.I agree with the guy,Every Chinese movie that I have seen kind of sucked.And they are very hard to follow.Even when the movie has subtitles.They are still hard to follow The only Chinese movie that I want to see.Is the movie the rape of Nanchang.The previous that I seen.It looked like it was going to be a good movie
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Movie to Avoid: A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop
Saw this movie on the way here...20 minutes of dialog, 70 minutes of running around and doing nothing... I'd definitely avoid it at all costs.
My brother wrote to me that he got Founding of a Republic... will try to watch it when I get back from TW.
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I think odd that this thread died since a lot of members like Chinese movies.
For me, I do not like the current commercial offerings, & usually I wander over
the YouTube site.
Unbelievable qualities exist on YouTube, especially Chinese movies dubbed in English.
most recently, I viewed Comrades: Almost a Love Story a HongKong love story
starring Maggie Cheung...a favorite of mine. An excellent & very funny love story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=titr6EeZU3E
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There is one Channel I get here that just plays Movies 24 hours a day. Often US or UK films with Chinese subtitles and English! Often Chinese sometimes with English sub titles but always Chinese. Occasionally in French or German or some other language.
But there are no advertisements at all. Just one film following another. I wonder who pays for it and why.
Or am I paying a minute portion of the minute overall monthly charge for it.
Willy
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I've watched a number of Chinese movies on Netfix and Hulu. The last one was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Some of it was filmed at Wudang mountain which btw I honeymooned at.