Cry me a Sad River [悲伤逆流成河]

Released: 2018 Viewwed: October 2019 Just as the promising ‘Better Days’ is finally released in Chinese cinemas, here is another unsuccessful teen movie from last year. Yi Yao [Ren Min] and Qi Ming [Zhao Yingbo] are friends and neighbours in a Shanghai back alley (though it could be almost any Chinese city). But Qi is…

To live to sing [活着唱着]

Released: 2019  Viewed: October 2019, London Film Festival Director Johnny Ma tells the story of a struggling Sichuan opera troupe. Zhao Li [Zhao Xiaoli] is the manager of the troupe and her niece, the young and attractive Dan Dan [Gan Guidan] is the main attraction. The group plays to appreciative but ageing audiences in its…

One Child Nation

Released: 2019  Viewed: October 2019 As the name suggests, a documentary about China’s one child policy. This is a very personal account from co-director Nanfu Wang (with Jialing Zhang). Wang, born in China but living in the US, returns to her remote home village in Jiangxi province with her young son. Wang adopts a very…

Double Xposure [二次曝光]

The film opens with a shot of a bleached blond Fan Bingbing swimming underwater, eerily reminiscent of Xun Zhou in Lou Ye’s Suzhou River. Song Qi [Fan] is a counselor in a plastic surgery clinic run by Dr Hao [Joan Chen]. She is in a relationship with one of the doctors, Liu Dong [Feng Shaofeng].…

A Woman for Two [春桃]

Released: 1988 Viewed: October 2019 Beijing, 1930s. Coincidentally (see last review) this film also opens with a crowd of people (and dogs) rummaging through rubbish to find anything of value. The film, based on a 1930s short story by Xu Dishan, stars Liu Xiaoqing as Chuntao (the Chinese title of the film), who collects waste…