Bachelor Mountain [光棍]

Released: 2009 Viewed: June 2019 Bachelor Mountain (Bachelor in Chinese) is a documentary about the life of foresters living in China’s most northerly Heilongjiang province. Or rather it focuses on one specific man, 46 year old divorcee San Liangzi. Men are seriously over-represented amongst the population in this area with many of the woman having…

Here, then [此处与彼处]

Released: 2012   Viewed: June 2019 Scenes of life in China. This film (Here and There in Chinese) is highly unusual and almost documentary-like in approach. It is almost without dialogue for its 90 minutes and equally without any clear storyline. The film focuses on a number of young people going about their everyday lives. It…

欲望森林 [Desire Forest] (2016); Desire and The City 2 [欲望森林2血暗陀罗] [2018]

Two more low-budget online movies, both funded by Anhui-based Aries Star Films and directed by Xuan Yang (director of the engaging A girl named Lily). And more ‘desire’ [欲望], although in this case the films engage with issues such as drug abuse and prostitution. Desire Forest opens in a Hefei nightclub with loud music, psychedelic lights, drugs…

A Girl Named Lily [少女百合]

My exploration of low-budget on-line movies continues with this short lesbian love story (1 hour 7 minutes) directed by Xuan Yang.  While such a film might be unexceptional in many countries, lesbian films are very unusual in China. Liang Shi’s 2014 book Chinese Lesbian Cinema examines just four movies, starting with 2001’s ‘China’s first lesbian film…

Desire to Love [欲望爱人] (2014); The Housemaid [欲望保姆‎] (2014); 欲望北京之地上地下 [Desire in Beijing under and over ground] (2014)

These are three low-budget films about the lives of young migrants in Beijing [北漂 in Chinese, literally north drift]. Desire to Love is the best of the bunch with a simple story line, well represented by the lead actors and a refusal to opt for overdramatization. Desire in Beijing features Yuchen [Ma Yunan] who moves to Beijing…