Zhao Erkang Movies
- 1988
- R
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Produced in Mainland China by Sil-Metropole, this action picture marked the first directorial work by international martial arts icon Jet Li. He also stars in the film as a young kung-fu expert who fights back against the heartless American soldiers routinely bullying the Chinese populace in the days after World War II (needless to say, the film's viewpoint is slanted in an extremely anti-Western direction bordering on agitprop). First beating one loud-mouthed sailor in a kickboxing contest, the valiant Li gives his prize money to the poor and becomes a rickshaw driver. The Americans destroy his rickshaw and trick Li into allowing himself to become a sparring partner for their fighting practice, a setup engineered with the aim of repeatedly beating the cocky Chinaman to a bloody pulp. The climax of the setup occurs in a driving torrential rain, as he is pitted against the huge Navy captain, and their battle results in a large-scale melee as Li improbably defeats his towering foe. To punish his impudence, the Americans then murder two of Li's friends and frame him for the slayings, setting up the hero's inevitable jailbreak and retaliatory triumph. The film's structure is aimed at portraying all the Americans as vicious sadists, so Li spends a majority of the 92-minute running time being savagely beaten, only to repeatedly come back for more and emerge victorious. Zhao Erkang co-stars with Song Jia and the hulking Kurt Roland Pettersson, whom one might suspect would get the better of Li in a real fight. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- 1986
- R
Can Yue (pronounced "tsan yu-e") is a melodrama that centers on the perception and treatment of older women in China. The central woman in this story married in the traditional manner, but only after her fellow villagers turned against her first marriage to the man she loved. The prejudicial attitudes of the villagers drove the couple apart, and now many years (and five daughters) later, the woman is widowed and longs to see her former love. Since her first husband kept her first-born child, her desire to see him is not merely triggered by nostalgia for the love they knew. But the situation is made more difficult by her own children, who forbid her to remarry, believing its beneath the dignity of a woman her age. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zheng Zhenyao, Hong Rong, (more)
- 1982
Yuan Shikai (Yuan Shih-k'ai, President of China between 1912-1916) once tried to set himself up as a monarch in a return to the old Chinese imperial system -- abolished by the 1911 revolution. This film has one of his generals, Cai E (Ts'ai E ) plotting to turn the tables on Shikai and overthrow him before he can do any danger to the newly-established democratic republic. General Cai is helped by an imperial courtesan, Fengxian (Feng Hsien) who reverses her loyalty to Yuan Shikai. Both the general and the courtesan carry on a love affair, set against the backdrop of the revolution and Shikai's treachery. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zhang Yu, Ying Ruocheng, (more)
