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.
Assembly (2007)
7.3/10
Director: Feng Xiaogang
Starring: Zhang Hanyu, Yuan Wenkang, Deng Chao
Acclaimed Chinese director Feng Xiaogang brings the little known Chinese Civil War into light with this powerful and unflinching film based on a true... Read more
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002)
7.3/10
Director: Dai Sijie
Starring: Xun Zhou, Chen Kun, Liu Ye
Set in China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1970s, the story follows Luo (Chen Kun) and Ma (Liu Ye), two young men from the city who are sent t... Read more
Beauty Remains (2005)
5.2/10
Director: Ann Hu
Starring: Xun Zhou, Vivian Wu, Wang Zhiwen, Lisa Lu
Set against the backdrop of Communism's rise in 1949 China, it is 15 years since a poor, illegitimate schoolgirl was abandoned; now her spoilt half-si... Read more
Beijing Bicycle (2002)
7.3/10
Director: Wang Xiao-Shuai
Starring: Xun Zhou, Cui Lin, Li Bin
Director/co-scripter Wang Xiao-Shuai's Sino-flavoured take on De Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" follows a rural Chinese youth who comes to Beijing and lan... Read more
Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
6.7/10
Director: Yi'nan Diao
An ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murd... Read more
Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre (1995)
7.5/10
Director: T F Mou
Portrays the ordeals of the members of a poor Chinese family as they try to survive the Japanese occupation of their city. This is an uncompromising p... Read more
Blind Mountain (2007)
7.5/10
Director: Li Yang
Starring: Yang Youan, Zhang Yuling, Huang Lu
In rural early 90's China, Bai (Huang Lu), a pretty and enterprising college student, travels to a remote, mist shrouded mountain village in the compa... Read more
Blind Shaft (2003)
7.6/10
Director: Li Yang
Starring: Wang Baoqiang, Wang Shuangbao, Li Qiang
This gritty, guerrilla-style drama centers on two con men who set out to strike a blow against the spirit-crushing coal mining industry of Northwester... Read more
Bodyguards and Assassins (2009)
6.8/10
Director: Teddy Chen
Starring: Donnie Yen, Hu Jun, Leon Lai, Nicholas Tse, Simon Yam, Wang Xueqi, Eric Tsang, B...
1906, City of Victoria (British Colony of Hong Kong). In five hours, in the distance of thirteen blocks, the one man who holds a nation's fate must su... 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