Sun Wukong, the King of the Monkeys, sets off on his first adventure to gain a worthy weapon. This earns the attention of the Jade Emperor of Heaven.Read More »
Chinese cinema under Mao
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Wan Laiming & Cheng Tang – Da nao tian gong AKA The Monkey King AKA Uproar in Heaven (1963)
Wan Laiming1961-1970AdventureAnimationCheng TangChinaChinese cinema under Mao -
Junli Zheng – Nie Er (1962)
1961-1970AsianChinaChinese cinema under MaoDramaJunli ZhengBiography of famous Chinese composer Nie Er, who found the meaning of life by composing for national rejuvenation.Read More »
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Jin Xie – Wutai jiemei AKA Two Stage Sisters (1964)
Jin Xie1961-1970ArthouseChinaChinese cinema under MaoDramaChronicles the fortunes of two actresses in pre-revolutionary China, who are separated by money and politics.Read More »
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Jin Xie – Nu lan wu hao AKA Woman Basketball Player No. 5 (1957)
1951-1960AsianChinaChinese cinema under MaoDramaJin XieWoman Basketball Player No. 5 not only explores the problems that a young female athlete faces in coming to grips with her ambitions in the field of sports, it portrays the fate of two different generations of Chinese athletes, one pre- and the other post-Liberation.Read More »
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Jun Li – Nong nu AKA Serfs (1963)
1961-1970AsianChinaChinese cinema under MaoDramaJun LiFrom the BFI website:
Drama about the exploitation of a Tibetan serf and his liberation by the People’s Liberation Army. Orphaned Jampa is brought up by his grandmother until she dies when he is twelve. The serf-owner Namgyal makes him a house serf and ill-treats him. Lamka, the sister of his blacksmith friend Gezong, tells him the P.L.A. has reached Tibet. Jampa, Gezong and the P.L.A defeat the plots of Namgyal and Thugpen, the hypocritical `living buddha’ and the serfs are emancipated.Read More » -
Bailu Feng – Bai yi zhan shi AKA Soldier in White (1949)
1941-1950Bailu FengChinaChinese cinema under MaoDramaWarA heroic People’s Liberation Army nurse continues caring for wounded and getting them safely to hospital even though she has been wounded.Read More »
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Xu Tao – People of the Grasslands aka People on the Steppe aka People on the Prairie (1953)
1951-1960AdventureChinaChinese cinema under MaoDramaXu Tao‘This movie was adapted according to the homonymy fiction by Malaqinfu. There was a pair of lovers in a big plain, shepherdess Sarengewa and hunter Sangbu. They were dear to each other, worked arduously, and built their pleasant life with their hands. Secret agent Baolu did something bad, and persuade Sarengewa’s father Baiyire to retreat from Huzhu group, Baiyire refused him understandingly. Then Baolu thought up another trick: he cut the rope of the livestock balustrade under the cover of storm, frightened livestock escaped all around. Read More »
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Michelangelo Antonioni – Chung Kuo – Cina (1972)
1971-1980Chinese cinema under MaoDocumentaryItalyMichelangelo AntonioniIn 1970, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni was asked to return to his roots as a documentarian for this profile of China, fully sanctioned by the government of the People’s Republic. In a detached, distant style, the director and his crew pick up snatches of life in and around Bejing, including: kids at an elementary school; a hospital where a woman is giving a cesarean birth; and a cotton mill and its workers. Despite Antonioni’s efforts, China denounced the finished film, and as such, it has gone relatively unseen in most parts of the world, including the United States.Read More »