Sacrificed Youth [青春祭]

Released: 1985 Viewed: 2016 This is one of the earliest films about sent-down youths during the Cultural Revolution.  It is based on a (presumably autobiographical)  novel by Zhang Manling. Seventeen year old Li Chun [Li Gengxu]  is sent to a remote Dai village in rural Yunnan. Her father and (later) her mother are in (unspecified)…

Half Flame, Half Brine [一半是火焰，一半是海水] & Ocean Flame [一半海水，一半火焰]

Released 1989 and 2008. Viewed: 2010 Two versions of the same book by controversial Chinese novelist Wang Shuo. The first, Half Flame, Half Brine (from director Xia Gang) comes from the opening up period of 1989. In this case, opening up to sex and crime. Minor criminal Zhang Ming [Luo Gang] and his friends are…

My Town/Life of Zhang Chu [桃源]

Released: 2019 Watched: April 2020 Zhang Chu [Geng Le] is moping around his home town of Taoyuan (the Chinese title of the film). He is now living with Li Hong [Lv Xingchen] but still pines after his ex-wife, the ambitious Cao Shujuan [Qi Xi, the attractive sister-in-law in So Long My Son] and son Xiaohu. But…

The Bittersweet [苦乐参半]

Released: 2017 Viewed: April 2020 The Bittersweet is an unusual Chinese thriller which looks interesting but, unfortunately, the delivery does not live up to its ambitions. Xiao Ma [Lee Taeri] is a motorcycle courier in a large Chinese city. His Korean ethnicity seems to add to his isolation. One day, on his rounds, he rescues…