Chinese Language Resources
See Also: Audiocassettes | Films and Documentaries
Feature films/Documentaries
The Blue Kite
Tian Zhuangzhuang. 1 VHS cassette (138 mins.):color. Mandarin with English subtitles, Feature Film. USA 1994. Actors: lu Liping, Pu Quanxin, Guo Baochang.
"Banned in China, where the director was under close government scrutiny for making the film 'without permission', The Blue Kite is the most acclaimed and controversial of all the films to come out of the new Chinese cinema. Told from the perspective of a young boy, Tietou, it traces the fate of a Beijing family and their neighbors as they experience the political and social upheavals in 1950's and 60's China." (from the video jacket)
Raise the Red Lantern
Zhang Yimou, 1991. 125 mins. (color), 1 VHS cassette. Mandarin with English subtitles.
"Raise the Red Lantern received an Academy Award Nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film, 1991. In a sweeping and magnificent tale of passion, aspiration, dreams and desire set in the 1920's China, 19-year-old Songlian (Gong Li) has become Fourth Wife to the wealthy Chen. Yet she must share her husband with his three existing wives. Each wife has her own house on the estate, and each must wait until dusk for the arrival of a red lantern. Where the lantern is carried signifies which wife the master will sleep with that night. The lantern bring with it privileges none of the wives will sacrifice without a fight. When Songlian discovers that the other wives manipulate and cheat their way to win the red lantern, she decides to join in the fight for Chen's attention. A battle of wills commences that can only bring misfortune to all concerned." (from the video jacket).
Story of Qiu Ju, The
Zhang Yimou, 1992. 100 mins. (color), 1 VHS cassette. Chinese with English subtitles.
"Acclaimed director Zhang Yimou follow his back-to-back Oscar - nominations for JuDou and Raise the Red lantern with this award-winning story of one woman's comic and quixotic quest for justice. Chinese star Gong Li ("the most purely beautiful woman in the movies" - David Chute, VANITY FAIR) gives a luminous performance as Qiu Ju, a stoic peasant woman who demands an apology when her husband is kicked in the groin by the village Chief. But the Chief is a proud man who refuses to apologize, sending Qiu Ju on a futile trek through the complicated Chinese court system. From her small village to a nearby city and finally to the large and impersonal district court, hers is a universal battle against bureaucracy and indifference. Winner of Best Picture and Best Actress at the Venice film festival, THE STORY OF QIU JU is "funny, touching, surprising, provocative, and entertaining every step of the way." (from the video jacket).
Story of Xinghua, The
Yin Li, 1993. 89 mins. (color), 1 VHS cassette. Chinese with English subtitles.
"Meet Xinghua. Obedient servant. Compliant wife. Her husband's submissive possession. Bound by ancient traditions, she dutifully accepts a loveless marriage and endures her husband's cruelty. Until inescapable passion draws her into a dangerous and forbidden love affair which unleashes her senses...and releases her to dream of the unimaginable: freedom. Set in an exotic world where yesterday and tomorrow are on a non-stop collision course, this critically acclaimed drama of adultery and its aftermath was chosen as an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, and joins Farewell, My Concubine and Raise the Red Lantern as a masterpiece of modern Chinese filmmaking." (from the video jacket).
To Live
Zhang Yimou, 1994. 132 mins. (color), 1 VHS cassette. Chinese with English subtitles.
"In a smoky gambling den in 1940's China, a drunken young man runs through his family's fortune, losing their ancestral home and all their possessions. This staggering loss proves to be their salvation...and the first step in a thrilling odyssey of survival that will take them through war and revolution, love and loss, tragedy...and triumph. Through the terrors of China's civil war, the passions of the communist takeover, the betrayals of Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward the the tragic mistakes of the Cultural Revolution, their lives unfold across four decades of momentous change...bound by love, driven by the strength of the human spirit and touched more than once by the hand of fate." (from the video jacket).