Films in the Mandarin language
CertificationPG
Our Rating
Exquisitely detailed portrait of social and political shenanigans in Taiwan during the White Terror Era, specifically the 228 Incident of 1947, seen through the eyes of a single, troubled family struggling to maintain their identity. The eldest brother is murdered by a Shanghai mafia boss, one brother is driven insane in a KMT jailhouse, another is a mute who wants to flee to the mountains to join the anti-KMT resistance movement and only the youngest brother is left alive to tell the story of h
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Certification12
Our Rating
NJ is the partner in a fast failing software business, his wife has gone to a retreat in his hour of need, his children are at various stages of personal crisis and his mother-in-law lies in a coma. It is at this particularly joyless period in his life that NJ runs into his childhood sweetheart and begins to contemplate starting life a fresh. Both affecting and humorous, A One and A Two is a beautifully drawn character study, which amongst many other awards picked up ‘Best Director' at the Canne
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Certification15
Our Rating
One night, while investigating strange noises, artist, Ku, meets the beautiful Yang, who is living in a reputedly haunted abandoned fort. She is being pursued by the Imperial police and Ku finds himself caught up in many fights in her struggle to survive. This historical epic, set in the Ming Dynasty is action adventure with a lyrical feel, a kung fu film with a strong spiritual element, a combination of both Chinese and Japanese legend that mixes fantasy with political intrigue - Zen Buddhism i
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Certification12
Our Rating
In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing
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Certification15
Our Rating
Qiao is cool headed, smart, responsible and resourceful; good qualities to have when your boyfriend is a gangster. When Bin, her man, gets into trouble, Qiao gets him out of it. She fades into the background when Bin needs to take the spotlight. Qiao even takes a fall for Bin when he needs her in a pinch. And that is when he forgets her. Qiao emerges from five years in prison to cold indifference. To Bin, it is as if she did not exist. "People should keep their emoti find out more...
Certification15
Our Rating
A Chinese soldier's tale; Guzidi was a child of poverty who became a successful guerrilla soldier and then officer in the Liberation Army. After a fierce battle with the KMT Guzidi and his remaining 46 troops are sent to a front line defensive position, where they are abandoned by the main army corps to a fight to the death. After a heroic act in the Korean War Guzidi, riddled with guilt and loss of meaningful identity, fights a long battle to atone for the loss of his company by gaining recogni
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Certification12
Our Rating
Set during the cultural revolution in China we follow two urbane young men after they are dismissed to a remote, but beautiful, mountainous corner of the country to re-learn the basic tenets of Chairman Mao's communist ideology. At first depressed by their predicament, the two lads soon perk up when they come across a hidden selection of western literature, a find they eagerly share with the curious and beguiling local seamstress. They also survive by telling stories, making music and pulling te
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CertificationPG
Our Rating
Two boys become acquainted when one accuses the other of stealing his bicycle. One is a simple peasant, the other an ambitious schoolboy, thus pitting the doubtful virtues of capitalism against human dignity and pride. Winner of the Silver Bear and Grand Jury Prizes at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival Beijing Bicycle is considered to be reminiscent of The Bicycle Thief, yet exceptional cinema in itself.
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Certification15
Our Rating
A bold feature from writer-director Li Yang, also producer, film editor and focus puller, who is not afraid to expose the 'every-man-for-himself' corruption and swindling situations of China's miners' conditions. Seems like a sad story, yet its plot progression is as taut a thriller and chilling as it is straightforward, with its dauntless depiction of the ugly, the callous and the innocent. Amorality and moral strength are at play here, and the script was written with dramatic turns akin to the
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Certification15
Our Rating
Lin Yuezhen is in love with swimming star and school heartthrob Zhang Shihao. She's far too shy to approach him and instead asks her best friend Meng Kerou to act as a go-between. Kerou reluctantly agrees but whenever Shihao appears Yuezhen flees. Shihao can only conclude that Kerou is using an imaginary character to court him but she has her sights set elsewhere. An insightful and original coming of age drama.
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Certification15
Our Rating
1905; Chinese revolutionary Sun Yen (good guy) intends to journey to British run Hong Kong to further plans for a revolt against the dying Qing dynasty, but the Empress Dowager Cixi (bad person) sends assassins who bump off, or kidnap, his colleagues. However local HK businessman Li Yutang (good guy) rallies an ad hoc mixture of rickshaw boys, street traders and beggars to thwart them and provide safe passage for Sun Yen.
So there you are you now know who the good guys are in this stunning act
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Certification12
Our Rating
Set during the Ming Dynasty in China, the young Emperor and his sister Wushuang ache to escape the yoke of their position. Li Yilong and his sister Phoenix are from the other end of the social spectrum but all four have one thing in common, they are destined for each other. When the two royal siblings escape the palace all manner of foolishness ensues; gender reversal, comic delusion, misunderstanding and physical farce are but a few of the problems facing our heroes in their quest for love. Chi
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Certification12
Our Rating
Two supremely stylish stories from Hong Kong's hottest new director. In the first, a lonely cop becomes inadvertently involved with a drug-smuggling femme fatale. In the second a lovelorn cop is oblivious to the advances of a besotted waitress...till she takes the bull by the horns. Great fun!
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Certification18
Our Rating
'City of Life and Death', like the earlier 'City of War; the John Rabe Story', is an account of the Rape of Nanjing; the terrible crimes committed by the Japanese army during the sacking of the Chinese city and the desperate efforts to protect those, mainly Chinese, sheltering in the protected German zone. This version concentrates less on the atrocities and heroic whites and more on the growing sensitivity and terrible guilt of a Japanese sergeant.
An important and artfully made film. find out more...
An important and artfully made film. find out more...
Certification12
Our Rating
Martial arts master Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien battle against the mysterious forces of evil to recover the Green Destiny sword. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a simple story of bad versus good, intertwined with romance in its purest fairytale form and all done on an epic scale. Visually stunning, beautifully performed and with the most breathtaking martial arts fight sequences yet to be committed to celluloid.
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Certification18
Our Rating
A woman burnt to death, but no signs of fire, a dead priest with his entrails ripped out, but no sign of a struggle. Creepy indeed and good reason for the Taiwanese police to call out the FBI's top serial killer profiler. Is this the work of mere man? Or have our two heroes stumbled across something altogether more other worldly? A slick, atmospheric and gruesome horror thriller.
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Certification15
Our Rating
A violent lab accident leaves drug manufacturer Timmy Choi hospitalised and in the custody of veteran Police Captain Zhang. Facing the death penalty, Choi agrees to turn informant, giving the Police vital information on his partners and their organisation in order to avoid execution. In a bid to take down the powerful drug ring, Captain Zhang and his team are forced to infiltrate Choi’s organisation. But when things spiral out of control, the lines between cop and criminal are blurred a find out more...
CertificationPG
Our Rating
Food and love, the two most important human desires, are explored in this delicious slice of life comic drama. Mr Chu is a retired master chef watching the romantic fortunes of his three daughters, the oldest an old maid school teacher with a broken heart, the next a career woman afraid of commitment and the youngest a growing up school girl. Surprises are revealed by each over meals at home, but Mr Chu may have one in store himself......
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