Fly with the Crane [告诉他们，我乘白鹤去了] (2012)

A moving small film by director Li Ruijun. Old Ma [Ma Xinchun] is 73 and not long for this world. A former coffin-maker, he wants to be buried in a coffin and believes that a white crane will take his body to heaven. But the rules now require all bodies to be cremated. Ma detests…

Last Sunrise [最后的日出] (2019)

Last Sunrise is an unusual, low-budget Chinese scifi movie. Set sometime in the future, all fossil fuel has been used up and the world relies on solar energy. But Sun Yang [Zhang Jue], a freelance astronomer, notices that star KIC846 has disappeared and that this seems to be related to instability in the sun. Then…

Sisyphus [在劫难逃] (2020)

A further entry in iQiYi's Light On theatre of short crime dramas (six to date with more due in 2021). The series produced so far have tended to divide audiences with some - such as Bad Kids (8.9 on Douban) and The Long Night (an exceptional 9.2) - being very well-received whereas others, such as…

The Long Night [沉默的真相] (2020)

Another in the iQiYi Light On series of crime TV dramas. This series (The Silent Truth in Chinese) is also based on a book by Zi Jinchen (aka Xu Chen) and features moody detective Yan Liang (also seen in Burning Ice) though now played by Liao Fan. The series is set in the (fictional) central…

Have a Nice Day [大世界] (2017)

Have a Nice Day is a rare example of a Chinese animated film. Its a story of greed, violence and one man's love for his girlfriend set in a a small rundown Chinese city. Xiao Zhang steals 1 million RMB from a gangster to take his girlfreiend to Korea to have her botched plastic surgery…

From Tomorrow on, I Will [春暖花开] (2019)

From Tomorrow is a low-key drama - though it looks more like a documentary - about a migrant worker in Beijing. Li [Li Chuan] shares a bed in a basement with a fellow migrant, though not at the same time. As one man goes to bed, the other gets up to go to work. The…