Bayinbulag (Ganghulag) and Somiya (Bayirtcya), two children from different families, grow up together under their adoptive Grandmother (Dalarsurong) in a Yurt on the Mongolian grasslands. At his Grandmother’s urging Bayinbulag agrees to marry Somiya but his education keeps him away from home for three years and when he returns it’s to discover that Somiya has become pregnant by the local … Read the rest
Category: China
The Winter of Three Hairs (Yan Gong and Zhao Ming, China, 1949)
In Shanghai, eight year old orphan Sanmao (Wan Lung-chi) joins a team of beggars, becomes the unwilling recruit of a Fagin-style criminal and is adopted by a wealthy lady who cleans him up, renames him Tom and tries to control him like one of her pets. But at a party in his honour Sanmao can’t stand the sight of his … Read the rest
The Goddess (Wu Yonggang, China, 1934)
A mother by day and a prostitute by night The Goddess (Ruan Ling-yu) struggles to bring up her child (Li Keng) in the face of hostility and prejudice. After narrowly escaping a police raid in the red light district The Goddess finds herself under the thumb of a thuggish gambler and pimp known as The Boss (Zhang Zhizhi), who steals … Read the rest
Night Train (Diao Yi’nan, China, 2007)
Set in a heavily industrialised region of the country – all hellish, steam filled factories and squalid, freezing hovels – the film follows Wu (Dan) as she takes the night train to a dating service in a nearby city. After several unsatisfactory liaisons Wu finds herself drawn to Li Jun (Qi Dao), a young man who seems interested in her … Read the rest
The Road Home (Zhang Yimou, China, 2001)
An exquisitely crafted, emotionally overwhelming experience, The Road Home ranks for me as one of the all time great cinema love stories and one of my favourite Asian films. It really blew me away. The tale is simplicity itself being essentially the story of how an illiterate teenage girl named Di (Zhang Ziyi, astonishingly good from her facial expressions to … Read the rest
A Chinese Ghost Story (Ching Siu-Tung, China, 1987)
A struggling tax collector (Leslie Cheung) spends the night in a haunted temple only to be seduced and almost killed by a beautiful woman (Joey Wang) whose change of heart toward her victim is only possible because she’s a good spirit under the spell of an evil tree demon. So, teaming up with a martial arts warrior (Wu Ma) to … Read the rest
