Letter from an Unknown Woman [一个陌生女人的来信] (2004)

Letter from an Unknow Woman is a remake of a classic Hollywood melodrama of the same name from 1948 both based on an original story by Stefan Zweig (originally published in 1922). The film appeared at a time when female-led melodrama appeared quite popular in Chinese cinema (see Jasmine Flower (2003) with Zhang Ziyi and…

Hero [世间有她] (2022)

Hero (aka HerStory) is the latest in the limited number of COVID-themed films from Chinese cinema. Consisting of segments directed by three well-known women directors and with an excellent cast, one might have hoped for something better than the average. But this is too much to expect when it comes to making a film in…

Old Stone [老石] (2016)

A good small film about the realities of life in China. The film opens as taxi-driver Lao Shi (Old Stone) [Chen Gang] follows a motorcyclist making deliveries. We then flash back three months to an accident when Lao Shi hit and seriously injured the same man Li Jiang [Zhang Zebin]. Although we never see the…

Close to Love [我们的样子像极了爱情] (2022)

Commentary on this film can basically be focused on either the good (the performance of the two leads) or the bad (the plot). The basic plot of the film is that Gao Xiaonan [Qi Yuchen] and Xu Yi [Li Xiaoqian] claim to be just good friends but they are actually in love. This is better…

I Love You [我要和你在一起] (2022)

This film starts of with an interesting premise. High school student He Meizhen [Li Meng] is known as a witch because accidents involving death and serious injury befall any boy who gets close to her, especially in a romantic manner. Despite this Li Xiaodong [Yin Fang] is attracted to her but when he too is…

Hot Soup [热汤] (2022)

An interesting film about happiness from director Zhang Ming. Thematically at least, it is much more accessible than his standard fare and features an attractive cast including rising stars Chen Duling and Li Meng. But then the director chooses a rather impenetrable structure so perhaps accessible is not the best way to describe the film…

Song of the White Orchid [白兰之歌] (1939)

This is the first in the Continental Trilogy of films set in China and stars Li Xianglan (aka Yoshiko Yamaguchi) and Japanese matinee idol Kazuo Hasegawa. It's a co-production between Toho and the Manchurian Man'ei company (on which see here). In contrast to the stage-bound Shanghai of the later China Nights (the next in the…

The Disappearing Child [消失的孩子 海葵] (2022)

This series (which started on 29 August on Mango TV) opens with a classic mystery theme. The Yang family - father Yuan [Tong Dawei], mother Tao Gang [Li Sheng] and nine year old son Mo (Momo) [Leo Li] are having breakfast in their fourth floor apartment in a 1990s complex. Yuan goes down to get…