Blog Archives

The Promise (2005)

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Posted on April 3, 2006 by Alison

This is an extremely silly film on which a startling amount of money was spent, and on which some very fine talents worked. Puzzling. One thing is for sure: just as the sheep is not a creature of the air, so Chen Kaige is not Tsui Hark. Hark is renowned for his ability to make superb fantasy, films that have a beauty and grace that transcend their often-humble special effects. No-one who’s ever seen A Chinese Ghost Story or its … (read more)

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To Live (1994)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by James

Late in the story, To Live bares its theme in an interchange of dialogue between its central male character, Fugui, and Chunsheng, the only person in the story who Fugui might want to call a friend. Having met each other as unwilling and clearly apolitical participants in the late-1940s war for the control of China, Chunsheng is later found responsible for an accident that claims the life of Fugui’s son. Now, years later, Chunsheng tells Fugui that his wife has … (read more)

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Balzac & The Little Chinese Seamstress (2002)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Eugene

So. Why watch films? For that matter, why read books? Why listen to music?

Why idolise heroes and heroines that never were; villains and monsters that can never be and tales that are not true?

After all, what is the point of art and culture? It feeds no hunger and shelters nothing from the cold. What practical purpose does it serve to us as the human race?

This is the kind of thinking that led to things like the Cultural … (read more)

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Shaolin: Wheel of Life (2000)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Spike

In early 2000 I was fortunate enough to see the “Shaolin Kung Fu Monks” show – 20 highly proficient practitioners of Kung Fu from the Shaolin temple in China in a 2-hour stage-show, that was touring Australia. I provided a review of that spectacular performance for Heroic Cinema.

When Mark offered me the opportunity to review Shaolin Wheel of Life — a commercial video/DVD from the same people, I jumped at the opportunity. What I found was definitely a mixed … (read more)

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Shadow Magic (2001)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Ching Yee

Now you can’t say this movie doesn’t have an interesting story behind it. The second in the new Silk Screen series, Shadow Magic is about the introduction of silent movies into China which sowed the seed for China’s early film industry.

During the early 1900s, a few enterprising Westerners introduced silent movies into China and were probably dismissed by the general masses as evil brainwashing foreigners, save a few curious and innovative locals who saw the enormous potential in them. … (read more)

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A Time For Love (2005)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Jason

A Time to Love is an homage to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, unlike many of the sorry filmic adaptations of this play, A Time to Love is one of the more touching versions, carrying with it a pure subtlety and innocence that one would only expect from a director who has graduated from the Beijing Film Academy.

A Time to Love tells the story of the tragic relationship between Hou Jia, (played by Lu Yi) and Qu … (read more)

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Sigh (2000)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Ching Yee

If Feng Xiao Gang is supposedly China’s most successful commercial film director then by all means, bring it on I say!

Unlike Chinese arthouse directors like Chen Kaige and Zhang Yi Mou, Feng is barely known here and that’s almost criminal considering what a solid piece of work Sigh is.

This is my first exposure to Feng’s work too and I was completely taken by surprise by this doomed affair of a married scriptwriter and his assistant. Narrated by the … (read more)

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Not One Less (1999)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by James

Not One Less caused controversy when it was demoted from official competition at Cannes, apparently for containing elements of propaganda. Zhang Yimou was unhappy with this suggestion and had the film withdrawn entirely, stating that the West (or at least the West as represented by the Cannes purveyors of ‘quality’ cinema) had an undesirable tendency to treat all Chinese films as statements either for or against the Chinese government. Every now and then it is surely constructive for someone to … (read more)

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