Chinese Cinema
Alice's collection of Chinese films is growing as the film industry there expands and begins to embrace an ever-increasing international audience. Films from China are often marked by great craft and attention to detail, and the stories are involved and often carry a political subtext. Though we have very little that is pre-1990, there is everything here from engaging personal stories to sweeping historical epics.
Pictured: Maggie Cheung in the stylized and breath-takingly beautiful 'Hero' from master craftsman Zhang Yimou.
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
8.2/10
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Gong Li, Ma Jingwu, He Caifei, Cao Cuifeng
This magnificent film chronicles the life of a 1920s maiden who, at her mother's urging, agrees to marry a wealthy man. She becomes 'fourth mistress'... Read more
Chungking Express (1994)
8.1/10
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Tony Leung (Chiu Wai), Faye Wong, Brigitte Lin, Valerie Chow
This intoxicating slice of Hong Kong romance noir is split into two stories: A cop gets dumped by his Girlfriend and tries to fall in love with the ne... Read more
Shower (1999)
7.5/10
Director: Zhang Yang
Starring: Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin, Jiang Wu
This acclaimed drama from Zhang Yang is set in and around a Beijing bathhouse run by its elderly owner and his slow witted son. The proprietor's older... Read more
Fallen Angels (1995)
7.7/10
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Leon Lai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Michelle Reis
A hitman's "agent" is falling in love with him, while a silent ex-con breaks into stores at night, opens them up and forces people to buy merchandise... Read more
Lust, Caution (2007)
7.6/10
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Tony Leung (Chiu Wai), Wei Tang, Joan Chen
Ang Lee's sensual espionage drama is set in Japanese-occupied China in the late 1930s and concerns the transgressive affair between collaborating busi... Read more
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
7.9/10
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Chang Chen, Zhang Ziyi
A pair of martial arts masters and would-be lovers, an independent young woman with a dark secret, and the search for a stolen mystical sword all come... Read more
The Road Home (1999)
7.9/10
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Sun Honglei, Zhang Ziyi, Zheng Hao, Zhao Yuelin, Li Bin
An exotic and exquisite film set in the unfamiliar Chinese outback that tells a simple, sweet love story in flashback. Sun Honglei, Zheng Hao and Zhao... Read more
Children of the Silk Road (2008)
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, David Wenham
Aka "The Children of Huang Shi". In 1930s war-ravaged China, a young English journalist named George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) leads 60 orphans thro... Read more
Yi Yi ( A One and a Two ) (1999)
8.1/10
Director: Edward Yang
Starring: Nianzhen Wu, Elaine Jin, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Issey Ogata
Set in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, writer/director Edward Yang's acclaimed drama juxtaposes old and new, love and heartbreak as it follows the em... Read more
To Live (1994)
8.3/10
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Ge You, Gong Li, Niu Ben, Guo Tao, Jiang Wu
This stirring film follows a married couple as their fortunes rise and fall, through several decades of Chinese life, from the 1940s onward. Ge You, G... Read more