Blame on the Girls [高禁系少女] (2017)

An entirely bizarre - and utterly entertaining - feature film which is difficult to place in a Chinese context. It comes across more like a Japanese movie based on a manga though with a definite Chinese take. Available on CathayPlay. It is set in a private high school where teacher Qingxiang [Mu Banlong] is more…

Tale of the Night [长沙夜生活] (2023)

Take of the Night (Changsha Nightlife in Chinese) is, well, a tale of life in Hunan capital Changsha (urban population 6 million) at night. It's quite an engaging ensemble piece which follows a number of different pairings though the night starting at 8 pm. We open with the main couple. Nerdy Jing Weiwei [Yin Fang,…

Director Shen Ruilan and experimental film

Most directors of short movies basically use the medium as a training ground with the aspiration to move into features or dramas. Shen Ruilan, in contrast, appears to be committed to the medium in itself with many of her films being at or about 5-10 minutes. Director Shen was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, lives…

‘Light of Female’ on CathayPlay

This post looks at a number of shorts in the Light of Female category on CathayPlay. Naked Island [赤裸的岛屿] (2022) Two women (Yang Meng [Zhou Lin] and Qi Yun [Chen Izel]) on an island, one a native the other from outside. When a mysterious virus strikes, a quarantine is imposed and they cannot leave. But it…

The Coldest City [极寒之城] (2023)

This film opens in promising fashion in Winter 1944 in Harbin (called Bin in the film), China's most northerly provincial capital (then part of Japanese-controlled Manchuko). Gu Nian [Xia Yu] has returned to the city to seek revenge (we only find out the details much later in the movie). This involves infiltrating himself into one…

Lost in the Stars [消失的她] (2023)

This film starts out as a Hitchcockian thriller (The Lady Vanishes). We first see husband He Fei [Zhu Yilong] in a foreign police station being mistreated by the local police. He has gone to a south-east Asian country Balandia (resembling southern Thailand but shot in Hainan) with his wife Li Muzi to celebrate their anniversary…

Falling off the Wall [范高墙] (2021)

Set in the rundown and neon-lit back alleys of a small southern city (shot in Wuhu in Anhui province), this 30 minute short tells the story of Fan Gaoqiang [Chen Guanliang], hairdresser and petty thief. Fan fancies himself as a gangster with his friend Liu Dianlong [Jiang Tao], a sometime motor bike courier prone to having…

All These Years [这么多年] (2023)

And speaking of standard romantic fare (see last review), this film, directed by Ji Zhuqing, is a perfect example. Chen Jianxia [Sun Qian] returns to Harbin after several years as her father is ill. We then get a flashback to her time in high school in that city where she was sent from a country…

Oasis [绿洲] (2022)

Set in and around a commercial building in Wuhan. On the roof is a football pitch run by Xiaodong.[writer and director Chen Mengqiao, a native of Wuhan] On one of the lower floors is a KTV with young attractive women on the street to attract (male) customers. On the street is a local restaurant where…

Women-centred shorts on CathayPlay

One of the merits of the CathayPlay platform for Chinese independent cinema is the number of female-focused films whihc it carries. This post looks at a numbe rof these. As I Lay Dying [麒麟街] (2021) In this 20 minute film (Kirin Street in Chinese) Mengnan [an excellent Cai Shujie] has returned home to Hangzhou for her…