Will you look at me [当我望向你的时候] (2022)

A strikingly original short film by director Huang Shuli, largely autobiographical. The film's dialogue consists mainly of a voiceover by the director and conversations between himself and his mother who finds it difficult to accept that he is gay. In fact, she seems largely OK with this on a personal level (she has known about…

E Huang Mountain [鹅凰嶂逸事] (2013)

An earlier slice-of-life feature from director Yang Pimgdao. Although I was not a fan of his recent A Yang Pingdao Film (2020), I was persuaded to watch this by seeing his 2012 short One Day as Usual, a concise and cutting film about a corrupt local cadre. E Huang Moiuntain starts out as though it…

All the Crows in the World and other shorts

Chen Xuanyu was the star of Damp Season (2020) but the young actress has also appeared in a number of short movies including All the Crows in the World shown at Cannes in 2021. All the Crows in the World [天下乌鸦] (2021) High school student, Zhao Shengnan [Chen Xuanyu] is invited to a party by…

The Dog Days [三伏天] (2019)

An excellent lengthy (50 minute) short drama. Lao Qi [Wang Youyi] is a duck farmer. He has borrowed money for his mother's medical care as she is seriously ill in hospital. Now to pay it back (and raise more badly needed funds) he is assisting people trafficker Yang Kangquan [Ou Jianyou]. The people appear to…

Damp Season [回南天] (2020)

Damp Season is set in the southern megacity of Shenzhen during the humid season. Juan [Chen Xuanyu) and Xiaodong [Huang Yucon] are a couple though it is not clear why. She is a lively and independent young woman while he is a brooding and introverted young man whose communication with Juan does not go beyond…

Long Day [漫长的一天] (2020)

As the title suggests, this film shows the life of a series of (very loosely related) events over a long day in the wintery Beijing suburbs. After a quarrel with her boyfriend Lan Xu {Lan Feiyang], Li Can [Li Qiuying] goes to the shops leaving her three year old daughter Anan in her apartment. But…

Good Cats [好猫] (2008)

Set again in Zigong, the next film from director Ying Liang is again a slice-of-life story from central China. Luo Liang (who is almost 30) is driver and general gofer for businessman Boss Peng who is now moving into property development. This, of course, includes bribing village chiefs (and others) to transfer the use rights…

The Other Half [另一半] (2006)

A portrait of women's lives in a small (by Chinese standards) central Chinese city (Zigong). Zeng Xiaofen [Zeng Xiaofei] is a 22 year old woman who takes a job as a legal secretary with a law firm. She sits in on and takes notes of interviews with various clients (shot directly to camera). Unsurprisingly, these…

The Bride [新娘] (2009)

A downbeat take on the themes explored in The Postman Always Rings Twice or Double Indemnity albeit without the sexual obsession on display there. As the film opens, Lao Qi [Qi Haping] and his three middle aged friends are searching the countryside near Wushan for young women. Ostensibly this is to work in Qi's small…