dGenerate Films' Best Chinese-Language Films of the 2000s
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- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungSiu Ping-LamTwo neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
- DirectorWang BingThe impact of the decline of heavy industry on workers and their families in the Tiexi district of Shenyang, China, at the turn of the 21st century, documented unflinchingly by a fly-on-the-wall camera.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangTao ZhaoLiang JingdongA theatre troupe from rural Fenyang struggles under the decline of communism and rise of popular culture in China in the 1980s.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoZhou LanSanming HanA town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsWen JiangKenya SawadaHongbo JiangVillagers in World War II China are unsure what to do with the two enemy prisoners who have been left in their care.
- DirectorJiayin LiuStarsHuifen JiaJiayin LiuZaiping LiuDaily life in an impossibly cramped Beijing apartment takes on epic proportions in this, intimate portrait, with unprecedented access, of a working-class Chinese family.
- DirectorYe LouStarsLei HaoXiaodong GuoXueyun BaiYu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoTaishen ChengJue JingAn exploration on the impact of urbanization and globalization on a traditional culture.
- DirectorYang LiStarsYixiang LiBaoqiang WangShuangbao WangTwo coal miners and conmen looking for their next murder victim decide on a naïve country boy desperately looking for a job.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsChow Yun-FatMichelle YeohZiyi ZhangA young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenKiyonobu MitamuraOn a dark, wet night a historic and regal Chinese cinema sees its final film. Together with a small handful of souls they bid "Goodbye, Dragon Inn".
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsShu QiChang ChenFang MeiThree stories set in three times, 1911, 1966 and 2005. Two actors play the two main characters in each story.
- DirectorYe LouStarsXun ZhouHongsheng JiaZhongkai HuaAfter getting out of prison, small-time crook Mardar stumbles upon a woman who looks exactly like his long-lost lover.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenYi-ching LuA watch salesman meets a young woman soon leaving for Paris and becomes infatuated, so he begins to change all the clocks in Taipei to Paris time.
- DirectorAndrew LauAlan MakStarsAndy LauTony Leung Chiu-waiAnthony Chau-Sang WongA story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiTang WeiJoan ChenDuring World War II era, a young woman, Wang Jiazhi, gets swept up in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with a powerful political figure, Mr. Yee.
- DirectorLiang ZhaoStarsZhang WeiyeXiao YuanIt is a fantastic documentary about Chinese govt's systemic oppression and persecution toward ordinary folk who petition the government.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsWei Wei ZhaoQiong WuTao ZhaoTwo unemployed Chinese teenagers have trouble resisting the temptations of the Western world.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsShu QiJack KaoChun-hao TuanThe ethereally beautiful Vicky recalls her romances with Hao Hao and Jack in the neon-lit clubs of Taipei.
- DirectorYe LouStarsHao QinSicheng ChenWei WuHired to spy on a philandering husband, Luo Haitao soon becomes entangled in a clandestine affair with the other man. Along with Luo's girlfriend, they succumb to the delirium of drunken nights, but how long can their tryst last?
- DirectorYan FengBINGAI features one woman farmer who refuses to move away from her village. The audience will follow her seven-year struggle with officials who pressure her to relocate, while a strong devotion to her land compels her to remain in the place she calls home.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsJet LiTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungA defense officer, Nameless, was summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success of terminating three warriors.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenYi-ching LuHsiao-Kang, now working as a pornographic actor, meets Shiang-chyi once again. Meanwhile, the city of Taipei faces a water shortage that makes the sales of watermelons skyrocket.
- DirectorStephen ChowStarsStephen ChowWah YuenQiu YuenIn Shanghai, China in the 1940s, a wannabe gangster aspires to join the notorious "Axe Gang" while residents of a housing complex exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf.
- DirectorChangwei GuStarsJing AnLi FengChangwei GuChina in the late 1970s and early 1980s: the life of an ordinary working family as seen through its three siblings.
- DirectorJiayin LiuStarsHuifen JiaJiayin LiuZaiping LiuThe director shows herself and her parents making dumplings in their apartment with nine fixed camera positions, with which she revolves around the kitchen table.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenNorman AtunA day laborer is badly beaten, and a young man nurses him back to health.
- DirectorChao WangStarsTianhao LiuFuwen MiaoGuilin SunA prostitute from the Northeast, desperate and unable to make ends meet, abandons her baby. An unemployed factory worker decides to take the child for the 200 yuan (about $37 Canadian) a month in child support promised by its mother. His early attempts at child-rearing are somewhat painful to watch, but also charming and amusing. Eventually, he and the mother become friendly and it seems that the child will be raised in a sweetly unorthodox family. However, when the woman's pimp, a local gangster, not only finds out that he may have fathered the child, but also that he is dying of cancer, he decides that he must adopt the baby - and is willing to resort to violence if necessary.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiZiyi ZhangFaye WongSeveral women enter a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years, after the author has lost the woman he considers his one true love.
- DirectorLiang YingStarsXigui ChenGang DengHuibin LiuWorking as a secretary for a legal office, Xiaofen records clients detailing the sordid aspects of their lives: divorce cases, medical malpractice suits, financial corruption and old-fashioned personal revenge. Xiaofen starts to question her own relationship with her boyfriend (Deng Gang), fresh out of prison and looking to get into trouble again with his gambling habit. While Xiaofen deals with the overwhelming social malaise surrounding her, rumors spread of a disaster at the local chemical plant, threatening to poison the entire city.
- DirectorGuangyi YuSurvival Song is a modern day story of outlaws, poachers, squatters and misfits fighting to survive on the fringes of Chinese society. Han, a college graduate who used to be a forestry worker, struggles to support his wife and children by illegally hunting and trapping wild boar. They live in an abandoned logging camp with no electricity or running water. The government is clearing the area to build a reservoir and corrupt local officials decide to demolish Han's home in the middle of the winter. At the same time, Han's goatherder Xiao Li has returned after running off to the hills with a "crazy woman." Although Xiao Li is a uniquely strange character, he finds a home with this ragtag family of survivors.
- DirectorHaibin DuA year in the life of the sidings dwellers who eke out a living, begging, foraging, stealing and sleeping rough near the Baoji railway station in Shaanxi.
- DirectorLiang ZhaoStarsWang Yu FuGe TaoIn a small town near China's North Korea border, a state police station exerts itself as a solicitous caretaker of the locals. As it goes out to catch criminals and punish them too, professionalism fades into the background.
- DirectorCong Feng
- DirectorJie HuStarsJingyao WangPioneering filmmaker Hu Jie uncovers the tragic story of a teacher beaten to death by her students during the Cultural Revoution. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution exploded throughout China, as Mao's Red Guards persecuted suspected Rightists. Bian Zhongyun, the vice principal of a prestigious school in Beijing, was beaten to death by her own students, becoming one of the first victims of the revolutionary violence that would engulf the entire nation.
- DirectorZhuangzhuang TianStarsKuirong WangDelamu ¨C Tibetan for "Peace Angel". Since ancient times, China's two primary land routes connecting it to the outside world have been the Silk Road in the north, and Tea Horse-Road in the south. The mountain village of Bingzhongluo-Tibetan for "Village of Tibetans" is located on the high plateau of western Yunnan Province, at the foot of Gaoligong Mountain. Traveling along the Nujiang River, one can reach the southern Tibetan border town of Chawalong-Tibetan for "Valley of Dry Heat." But with no roads connecting the two places, since ancient times the transport of all goods and supplies has relied entirely on horse caravans. The journey of more than 90 kilometers zigzags through high mountain slopes, dense forests, gorges and wastelands. Year-round caravans have plied the Tea-Horse Road, traversing the Hengduan Mountains, packing tea, salt, grains and other provisions. Traveling upstream along the Three Rivers, the route reaches Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Western Asia, ultimately linking to Europe. Traveling downstream along the Three Rivers, the route reaches Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Created more than two thousand years ago, the Tea-Horse Road is the highest and most perilous of the world's ancient routes, and to this day still show vibrant signs of life. This film is a record of the Tea-Horse Road, the caravans of the Nujiang River Valley, and the aboriginal peoples who live there -- Mm. Ding who has a family with 15 members speaking 6 languages, a pastor who was jailed for 15 years for his believing, a 104 years old lady who walks through 3 centuries, a village head whose wife run away, a caravan who shares one wife with his elder brother, a young lama in the Buddhist temple who feels lonely sometimes, a 82 years old caravan leader whose story is a legend of the Tibetan caravans¡
- DirectorJie HuThis landmark documentary reveals the tragic life of a gifted young woman who was executed for speaking out during the height of Chairman Mao's rule. Lin Zhao, a top student from Peking University, was imprisoned for defending students and leaders persecuted during Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Movement in the late 1950s. A gifted writer, Lin composed endless articles and poems from her cell. Forbidden to use pens, she wrote with a hairpin dipped in her own blood. In 1968 she was executed, her tragic life lost to the margins of history. Four decades later, filmmaker Hu Jie brings Lin's story to light and uncovers the details of this forgotten woman's fight for civil rights. . Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul stands as a landmark in the Chinese independent documentary movement, an unprecedented work of investigation and recovery of modern China's suppressed memories. Director Hu Jie digs through artifacts and interviews first-hand witnesses to Lin's persecution, illuminating an era of political terror that sent millions to their deaths. The result is a lasting testament to a young woman's legacy of courage and conviction. In the words of Chinese writer Ran Yunfei: "Lin Zhao is the spiritual resource for all Chinese people and the legacy for the whole world."
- DirectorToe YuenStarsAnthony Chau-Sang WongJan LambChun-Wai LeeMcDull is not the brightest kid on the block, but he continuously tries to do his best to please his mother. Still it seems he may not be destined for great things like she wishes, but McDull strives to try anyway.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsLin CuiXun ZhouBin LiA seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
- DirectorGuangyi YuYu Guangyi's stunning debut explores a grueling winter amongst loggers in Northeast China as they employ traditional practices through one last, fateful expedition. For generations, the lumberjacks of Heilongjiang, China have made their living harvesting timber amidst a barren, wintry landscape. These woodcutters confront the elements, living in makeshift cabins surrounded by snow and ice. Hand tools, sleds and horses are the only technology they employ to drag massive trees down the perilous slopes of Black Bear Valley. At constant risk of injury and death, they attempt to appease the mountain gods with ancient rituals and sacrifices. Despite their heroic efforts to subsist, the deforestation caused by their decades-long customs may lead to their ultimate demise.
- DirectorHaibin DuThe "Great Sichuan Earthquake" took place at 14:28 on May 12, 2008. 10 days after: Scenes not seen on official/TV, "survival" is the keyword. Ordinary people are salvaging destroyed pig farms in the mountains, recuperating cents-worth scrapped metals, or pillaging victims' homes. Behind the highly-mediatized official visits, inconsolable grief of families searching for loved ones. Throughout, a vagabond in tattered clothes wanders among the ruins, observing tragic scenes. A monk and a Taoist visionary suggest: "the earthquake is the consequence of Earth-Gods no longer worshipped." 210 days after: Harsh winter, villagers preparing for Lunar New Year, the vagabond and family are detailing grievances about the ill-handling of rebuilding schemes and relief funds. Gearing up for a high official's visit, comes a thorough clean-up of the villages and tent-resettlement for refugees. Promise made for all to live in houses in winter seems tough to keep. Fake parts in the community transformer brought electricity blackout for New Year's Eve reunion dinners. New Year Day starts as never-ending parade of tourists buying DVDs of the most horrific scenes, souvenir albums of corpses being pulled out of the ruins, and photos taken in front of Beichuan, the town most severely hit, where over 70,000 people perished in seconds.
- DirectorYifan LiYu YanThe dam of Three Gorges, the largest dam that humans have ever built on earth, is under construction in China. The water-reserving began in 2003, and is expected to be completed in 2009. Until then, hundreds of counties, thousands of towns, and millions of local residents, including countless natural and historic spots along the area of Three Gorges, will be under the water level of the reservoir, including Fengjie, the town which became famous because of Li Bai, one of the most significant poets in the Chinese history. This film is a genuine overall record of the relocation of Fengjie town in 2002, just before the first water-reserving. An old man, who used to make a living out of a small inn for the cargo-movers in the front, was losing all of his assets. The priests of one local Christian church found it difficult to keep their faiths while bargaining for the breakdown of their church. Many life stories happened there, not without struggles and tears.
- DirectorYang LiStarsLu HuangYouan YangYuling ZhangA young woman is kidnapped and sold to a villager in the mountains.
- DirectorChih-yen YeeStarsGwei Lun-MeiChen Bo-linYolin LiangAn is-she-or-isn't-she gay comedy focused on a Taiwanese teen, the boy she might like, and the girl she may love.
- DirectorLibo Wang
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsHailu QinWai-Fan MakXiao Ming BiaoHong Kong life from the perspective of a young northern mainland Chinese woman working as a prostitute in Hong Kong.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeYi-ching LuFanny ArdantHsiao-Kang, a Taiwanese film director, travels to the Louvre in Paris, France, to shoot a film that explores the Salomé myth.
- DirectorWenguang WuStarsWenguang WuZhang YuanWang ZhutianThis documentary shows how different young people try to realize their dreams or become famous through the film industry. One of the main characters of this documentary is named Wang, a young man from the countryside, aged 28. He comes to Beijing out of a love for cinema; however, all he can do every day is line up outside the gate of a film studio in hope of landing a job as an extra, getting 30RMB for one day! During his stay in Beijing he writes a film script based on his own experience in Beijing as an extra. He thinks his play presents the darkness and desperation of survival in China. Then he wants to find an investor or a director who can produce his play as an "underground film", because in his opinion many Chinese directors are successful on the international stage through this way. In the process of searching he meets some directors and producers (including some underground film people), some famous some not, and also some businessmen, people from the film censorship authority as well as some students from the cinema institute. In fact in Beijing his life is very hard - with no money, or a stable place to sleep. In the summer he has to sleep on the roof of a school dormitory. Finally Wang fails to realize his dream, and he will never see his film made. Another character is also a young man from the countryside. His name is Xiao Wu, 19 years old. His love of cinema is shown in his chosen occupation of selling pirated DVDs, some of which are quite famous foreign films, for example some award-winners from the Berlin, Venice, and Cannes Film Festival. Everyday he puts all his DVDs into a bag and goes out on his bike to find his frequent customers, young people or students who are film buffs or involved in filmmaking. Apart from these two characters, this documentary also features young girls who dream of becoming movie stars. We learn of their love of film and their ideas about life as they audition for a role. "Throughout this process not only am I the maker of this documentary, but also a person who is puzzled about why we make films. Of course I also appear in this documentary, and never hide my bewilderment, or the conflicts between my characters and me. For example, Wang assails me that I use his miserable story for my own reputation." (Wu Wenguang)
- DirectorDayong ZhaoA remote village in southwest China is haunted by traces of its cultural past while its residents piece together their existence. Zhiziluo is a town barely clinging to life. Tucked away in a rugged corner of Yunnan Province, Lisu and Nu minority villagers squat in the abandoned halls of this remote former Community county seat. Divided into three parts, this epic documentary takes an intimate look at its varied cast of characters, bringing audiences face to face with people left behind by China's new economy. A father-son duo of elderly preachers argue over the future of their village church. Two young lovers face a break-up over harsh financial realities. A twelve year-old boy, abandoned by his family, scavenges the hillside to feed himself. "Directed with scrupulous attention to detail by Zhao Dayong" (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times), Ghost Town is "one of the most important films to have emerged from the booming (but still underexplored) field of Chinese independent documentaries" (Dennis Lim, Moving Image Source). Ghost Town "has a strong sense of historical consciousness, an eye for unique material, and a real sympathy for the people in the film and their tough lives" (Chris Berry, Goldsmiths University). "I do not expect to soon find scenes to match Ghost Town's mountaintop funeral, the running along after a rowdy exorcism, or the scanning of faces at the town Christmas chorale. His back to prosperity, Dayong finds hallowed ground" (Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice).
- DirectorLiang YingStarsXiaopei LiuLiang LuoDeming PengLuo Liang, a young man trying to meet the expectations of family and work, has come to town looking for something better but is unsure of his lot in life.
- DirectorLu ZhangStarsLianji LiuBo JinGuangxuan ZhuCui, a young Korean mother living on the outskirts of Chinese society, has a husband in jail and a son to support. She barely makes a living selling kimchi to workers along the side of a bleak, industrial road. A love affair with a fellow Chinese-Korean leads to tragic consequences as Cui struggles against the vulnerability of her position.
- DirectorYe ZhaoStarsZhi-Zhong LiYuan-Sheng LiuJalainur, a name from the beautiful Lake Hulun(aka Dalai nuur in Mongolian), is one of the last places in the world where steam trains are still running. It is also where the story begins. Master Chu is retiring from the open-cut coal mine where he has been working for more than 30 years as a train technician. Somehow he decides to retire one month earlier. His apprentice, Zhi-Zhong, whom he shares a father-son-like relationship with, insists on seeing him off, accompanying him along the way to his daughter's place, somewhere miles away on the border between China and Russia.
- DirectorTao PengStarsYuanbing GaoDequn HanQifa HongA couple purchases an eleven-year old girl who cannot walk, with the intention of using her to earn money through begging.
- DirectorYi'nan DiaoStarsRongcai FuChao JiDan LiuWu Hongyan is a young woman working as a prison guard during executions of female convicts. She feels lonely after her husband died, and she takes a night train to another city to visit a dating service. After a series of unsuccessful dates, she meets Li Jun. It quickly becomes obvious that he is hiding a secret: he is the widower of one of the female convicts of which Wu Hongyan assisted in the execution. Li Jun is torn apart by his feelings, as he is both attracted to Wu Hongyan, and having a desire for revenge for his executed wife.
- DirectorWang Wo
- DirectorJohnnie ToStarsSimon YamSuet LamRuby WongWhen an obnoxious detective loses his gun to four young thugs, it's up to the P.T.U. (Police Tactical Unit) and their iron-willed leader to recover the weapon and clean up the mess before daybreak.
- DirectorYang ZhangStarsXiuling ChaiFengsen JiaHongsheng JiaAn actor becomes increasingly introverted and psychotic and his entire family attempts to intervene.
- DirectorPema TsedenStarsDobe DorjeDrolma GyabManla KyabA filmmaker searches the Himalayas for an actor and actress to play the lead roles in his Tibetan opera.
- DirectorKate ZhuStarsTaishen ChengZi JinAn existential portrait of two lonely people living on the edge of contemporary Chinese society - a prostitute and a corrupt, violent cop - and a relationship with no future.
- DirectorFudong YangStarsRan ChenKong ChenjiangYanqin GaoA rare screening of the artist's most recently completed films in his celebrated series, based on the history of seven intellectuals in the ancient Chinese Wei and Jin Dynasties.
- DirectorFudong YangStarsRan ChenYanqin GaoLu HuangA rare screening of the artist's most recently completed films in his celebrated series, based on the history of seven intellectuals in the ancient Chinese Wei and Jin Dynasties.
- DirectorZhuangzhuang TianStarsJingfan HuJun WuBai Qing XinThe eight-year marriage of Liyan and Yuwen has left them both unfulfilled and distant. A visitor arrives from Shanghai, a doctor who's an old school friend of Liyan's and, unbeknownst to her husband, Yuwen's childhood sweetheart.
- DirectorLiang YingStarsXiaopei LiuJie WangYun XuA 17 year old boy from a village in the Sechuan province leaves for the big city looking for his father, who left 6 years before and has not been heard of since. The fact that his mother still receives money his father does nothing to tame his anger. He his not looking for a warm reunion, it is unconcealed revenge that drives him. Totally lost, he roams the big city with his basket of ducks on his back...
- DirectorYi'nan DiaoStarsKai HanHongli LiangHua QinEconomic unrest roils central China's Shaanxi Province: local factories are merging, thugs threaten managers, personnel records get lost, and workers are without protections such as health insurance. The police and much of society are surly. Xiao Jian, a mild young man whose father is ill, works in the family street stall doing pressing and tailoring. A laundered police-officer's shirt goes uncollected, and Xiao Jian puts it on: it opens doors. Wearing it, he chats up a clerk, Zheng Shasha, and takes her out. He extracts fines from drivers who violate traffic laws. In these tough times, he's not the only one with two identities. How long can he sustain it?
- DirectorTong XuA documentary that sketches the double life of the young Niu Hongmiao, who cares for her sick father in the countryside and works in Beijing as a prostitute. A picture gradually emerges of the Chinese sex industry.