Detention [返校] (2020)

Detention is a Taiwanese series (available on Netflix) which provides an alternative take on the themes raised in the film of the same name released in 2019. Detention the film was a sharp use of the horror genre to comment on the Taiwanese white terror (in its broadest sense the period of KMT repression/martial law…

Big Brother Hui [阿辉] (2019)

An interesting documentary about a small-time gangster in Guangdong. A Hui moved to Henan to Guangdong in 1999 in search of work. After working in several low levels jobs, he eventually moved into crime. Now (2013) the building by a major developer, Country Garden of a huge seaside real estate complex in the fishing village…

Best Director [最佳导演] (2021)

A tongue-in-cheek domestic tale by writer and director Zhang Xian shot mainly in black and white. Film director Zhang Zhang [Jin Jingcheng] returns from Beijing to Shanxi with his fiancee, successful photographer Shanni [Jiang Chuyi. They plan to have a low-key wedding but this does not go down well with his parents [Wang Shaolong and…

Farewell to Poverty [这一年] (2020)

An interesting documentary about 'poverty alleviation' or relocation policies in one rural area in 2017-18. I must admit that I was put off by the (English) title (the Chinese title is This Year) and the horrendous poster (right) fearing a 'main melody' approach. But this is a reasonably honest portrayal of how policies work in…

Flower and Sin [花与罪] (2021)

The success of the recent iQiyi Light On series – most recently Who is the Murderer? – has encouraged other series producers to develop (relatively) short crime series dealing, at least in some cases, with somewhat controversial topics. However, this format does not guarantee dramas of the quality (or high production values) of the Light…

Who is the Murderer? [谁是凶手](2021)

After a long wait, this - the latest in the iQiyi Light On series - has appeared (I have skipped the futuristic Wisher). And it is a return to the classic 'unsolved crimes' approach of the best of the series. Unfortunately, it is one of the weakest in the Light On series. A series of…

Love After Love [第一炉香] (2020)

Hermes scarves and linen trousers are the stars in this sumptuous but empty film by Ann Hui based on a 1940s short story by Eileen Chang (Zhang Aileen). The line up looks interesting. We have a story by Chang - herself also a scriptwriter - written in her early 20s, screenplay by Wang Anyi one…

Seven Days [冬] (2015)

Seven Days (simply Winter in Chinese) is a 73 minute feature about a lonely man in a lonely mountainous area of China. It is the first film by director Xing Jian (Winter after Winter) who also contributed to the screenplay. The old man [stunning portrayal by Wang Deshun] lives alone in the Changbai mountains in…

Winter after Winter [冬去冬又来] (2020)

A bleak account of a family's struggle for survival in Japanese-occupied Manchuria (north-east China) set towards the end of World War 2. It's March 1944 and Lao Si's [Gao Qiang] three sons are being taken away by the Japanese for forced labour. Before they go, Lao Si insists on his oldest son [Dong Lianghai] divorcing…