Yimou Zhang

  • Yimou Zhang – Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia AKA Curse of the Golden Flower [+Extras] (2006)

    Drama2001-2010ActionChinaFifth Generation Chinese CinemaYimou Zhang

    A dying love between two powerful people leads to deceit, infidelity, and conspiracy in this epic-scale historical drama from director Zhang Yimou. During the latter days of the Tang dynasty, the Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) returns home from the war with his son Prince Jai (Jay Chou) in tow. However, the monarch gets a chilly reception from the Empress (Gong Li); though she’s eager to see her son, her marriage has become deeply acrimonious, and she’s taken a lover, Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson from the Emperor’s first marriage. The Emperor, meanwhile, has his own plan for dealing with his failing marriage — he’s ordered the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) to find an exotic drug that will drive the Empress insane and administer it to her without her knowledge. However, the doctor’s ethical dilemma is intensified by the fact his daughter Chan (Li Man) has fallen in love with Crown Prince Wan and the two wish to elope. As the Emperor and Empress allow their estrangement to sink into violence and retribution, their youngest son, Prince Yu (Qin Junjie), struggles to keep the peace in the household.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Yi miao zhong AKA One Second (2020)

    2011-2020ArthouseChinaDramaYimou Zhang

    Quote:
    A traveller in China’s far west in 1975 crosses paths with a young girl. They both have an interest in a film that is being screened in the area, but for different reasons.

    Scott Mariner wrote:
    Censors in Beijing have approved the release for November 27, following a year-long effort to rework the film to please the government. One Second was originally intended to premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019. However it was pulled at the last minute with producers claiming “technical issues” — a common euphemism for Chinese government censorship. The incident was a shock to the international film community and indicated that the propaganda department’s recent takeover of the Chinese film industry means the government will be taking a much more heavy handed role in dictating what artists can and cannot create.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Jin ling shi san chai AKA The Flowers of War [+Extras] (2011)

    Drama2011-2020ChinaFifth Generation Chinese CinemaWarYimou Zhang

    A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan’s rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Gui lai AKA Coming Home [+Extras] (2014)

    2011-2020ChinaDramaFifth Generation Chinese CinemaYimou Zhang

    Lu and Feng are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. He finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife no longer recognizes him.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Shi mian mai fu AKA House of Flying Daggers [+Extras] (2004)

    2001-2010ActionChinaDramaFifth Generation Chinese CinemaYimou Zhang

    Quote:
    Mei is an exotic, beautiful blind dancer, associated with a dangerous revolutionary gang, known as the House of Flying Daggers. Captured by officers of the decadent Tang Dynasty, Mei finds herself both threatened by and attracted to the most unusual circumstances. Here, her heart and loyalties battle each other, amid warriors in the treetops and dazzling combat the likes of which have never before been seen!Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Yi ge dou bu neng shao AKA Not One Less (1999)

    1991-2000AsianChinaDramaFifth Generation Chinese CinemaYimou Zhang

    Quote:
    In a remote mountain village, the teacher must leave for a month, and the mayor can find only a 13-year old girl, Wei Minzhi, to substitute. The teacher leaves one stick of chalk for each day and promises her an extra 10 yuan if there’s not one less student when he returns. Within days, poverty forces the class troublemaker, Zhang Huike, to leave for the city to work. Minzhi, possessed of a stubborn streak, determines to bring him back. She enlists the 26 remaining pupils in earning money for her trip. She hitches to Jiangjiakou City and begins her search. The boy, meanwhile, is there, lost and begging for food. Minzhi’s stubbornness may be Huike and the village school’s salvation.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Ying xiong AKA Hero [Director’s Cut] (2002)

    2001-2010AsianFifth Generation Chinese CinemaHong KongMartial ArtsYimou Zhang

    Quote:
    In ancient China, before the reign of the first emperor, warring factions throughout the Six Kingdoms plot to assassinate the most powerful ruler, Qin. When a minor official defeats Qin’s three principal enemies, he is summoned to the palace to tell Qin the story of his surprising victory.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Hong gao liang AKA Red Sorghum [91min edit] (1988)

    1981-1990ArthouseChinaDramaFifth Generation Chinese CinemaYimou Zhang

    Quote:

    Celebrated Mainland filmmaker Zhang Yimou brings his inimitable touch to Red Sorghum, a sumptuous drama set during 1930s China, just prior to the Japanese occupation. Jiu’er (Gong Li) is a young bride arranged to marry the leprous owner of a sorghum winery. But the leper dies, and Jiu’er takes over the winery, along with her lover (Jiang Wen), a burly rogue with a natural, rough charisma. Their rural lives are filled with struggle and even joy, but the invasion of the Japanese brings tragedy and blood to their doorsteps. Told in glorious shades of red, Red Sorghum is quintessential Zhang Yimou, and uses setting, cinematography, and stunning imagery to create characters and mood that are both iconic and recognizable. Gong Li and Jiang Wen both turn in revelatory performances. As both an anti-war film and a portrait of pre-Communist Chinese life, Red Sorghum is a compelling, powerful achievement from a true master of cinema.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Xingfu Shiguang aka Happy Times (2000)

    1991-2000ChinaComedyDramaYimou Zhang

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis: A man stretching the truth for his own sake soon begins doing the same for someone else, with increasingly complicated results, in this gentle comedy from China. Zhao (Zhao Benshan) is a guy in his early fifties who’s out of work but still wants to marry his girlfriend (Dong Lifan). However, his often cranky sweetheart thinks he runs a hotel, and Zhao is trying to keep the illusion alive with the help of his pal Li (Li Xuejian) by turning an abandoned bus into a “love hotel” for couples who lack privacy in their homes. But business isn’t all that good, since the old-fashioned Zhao asks unmarried couples to keep their doors open to ensure nothing untoward happens. As Zhao tries to convince his girlfriend to walk down the aisle with him — and struggles to raise the money she demands first — she introduces him to Wu Jing (Dong Jie), the blind teenage stepdaughter she inherited from her marriage to her now-deceased first husband.Read More »

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