Niu Ben Movies
- 2007
A child whose life has been touched by tragedy must also deal with hate and ignorance in this drama from Chinese director Dong Ling. Ding Baojian is a young boy who is a student at a primary school in the small village of Banshan. Baojian has been living as an orphan ever since his mother died and his father became seriously ill; however, Baojian doesn't know the nature of his father's condition until he receives word of his death. Baojian's father succumbed to AIDS-related illness, and when the news spreads through Banshan, the boy becomes a pariah. Not only do Baojian's schoolmates cruelly taunt him, but their parents are convinced that the boy must also carry the AIDS virus. The parents refuse to allow their children to attend the same school as Baojian, and nothing local medical or education authorities can say will change their minds. Two Men's Classroom received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Niu Ben, Han Liyong, (more)
- 2002
Jiang Ping's Zhenqing Sanrenxing (Touched by Love) is a sad story about a boy learning about loss. Qiang Gao plays a police officer whose wife has passed away. He has yet to tell his son (Niu Ben) that she is gone. Instead, he has convinced the boy that his mother is in Australia. The boy's female teacher, at the father's request, has been writing the boy letters that are supposedly from Oz. The cop finds out he has cancer and must reveal the truth to the boy, while also talking the teacher into looking out for his son. Touched by Love was screened at the Hawaii Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
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. The woman insists that Zhao give Wu Jing a job in his hotel; since the bus/hotel has been towed away, this isn't a practical possibility. Zhao and Li put Wu Jing through a fake job interview to keep up appearances, and when she breaks down in tears talking about her deadbeat father, he decides he has to do something for her. Zhao moves Wu Jing into his home, and with the help of his friends, sets up a phony massage therapy center where Wu Jing works with the "clients" -- actually Zhao's friends, most of whom are also unemployed. But the bigger and more complex the illusion becomes, the harder it is to maintain, though Zhao feels compelled to do so for the sake of the girl's feelings. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zhao Benshan, Dong Jie, (more)
Zhang Yimou, often regarded as China's leading contemporary filmmaker, directed this drama chronicling the ebb and flow of one family's fortunes, set against the backdrop of China's tumultuous history between the 1940s and the 1970s. Fugui (Ge You) is the father of a once-wealthy family whose addiction to gambling and chronic bad luck causes him to lose his home in a game of dice with Long'er (Ni Dabong). Fugui's wife Jiazhen (Gong Li) abandons him, and he finds himself working as a peddler, until the man who now owns his home gives him a pair of shadow puppets. Fugui learns the art of puppetry and travels as a performer; while on the road, he is arrested by Nationalist forces, until he is liberated by advancing Red Army factions, and he comes him home to his wife and children as they adapt to the nation's new leadership. While once a lazy spendthrift, Fugui vows to change his ways, and he struggles to become a better worker and citizen. But Fugui and his family soon realize that there is adversity waiting for them around every corner, and the onset of the Cultural Revolution makes it clear that China's new regime can be as corrupt and callous as the old order. While a Grand Prize winner at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and recipient of the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 1995 BAFTA Awards, Huozhe did not fare well in its homeland. Chinese censors objected to the film's commentary about political abuses in China's past, as well as Zhang Yimou's attempts to present the film at several international festivals. As punishment, he was forced to write a formal apology and was not allowed to make another film for two years. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1988
Wang (Xie Yuan) is an uneducated and poor young man who becomes a genius in chess in this cerebral drama. He has been taught by a Taoist mentor with such skill that Wang is able to play nine opponents at the same time. Wang's prowess at chess makes him well known and sets up the ultimate match with the reigning champion know as "the Nail" (Li Hiu). ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- 1983
Aunt Tao (Zhang Ruifang) a retired and ailing schoolteacher, postpones her vacation to bring some unsupervised children under her wing at home, only to be faced with her distraught niece who needs silence to practice her music. This rift between the aunt and niece is soon healed, as the older woman works out a way to handle her own physical debilities as well. (The Chinese title of this movie translates as something like "Flowing Stream, Water Sound.") ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Niu Ben
- 1982
When Xu Jingyou (Liu Qiong) an American businessman goes to China in 1980, he wants to bring his son Lingjun (Zhu Shimao) back to the U.S. so he can have an easier life. They have been separated for 30 years, ever since the communists took over and the father fled the country. But Lingjun is ill-at-ease with his father, and one night Lingjun tells him how his life has been. First, he was accused of being a rightist in 1957 because of his father's desertion to the U.S. and was sent to the northwest grasslands to be re-educated. The native people were kind, generous, loving, and open -- and Lingjun began to be more human and caring as a result. When a young woman, 15 years younger than Lingjun, arrives from Sichuan to join the community, her shyness and good heart win his affections and the two eventually marry and have only one child, a son. In 1979, the accusations against Lingjun are dropped but he loves the people of the northwest so much that he could never leave them. Moved, his father vows to come back and be buried in the Motherland, saying that although he is rich, unlike his son, he is poor in affection. Poverty, forced marriages, forced birth control, the forced sterilization of Tibetan women, and the practice of giving away a physically handicapped newborn to adoption centers because each family should have only one child -- none of these issues are addressed in this propagandistic look at idyllic rural China. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zhu Shimao, Liu Qiong, (more)
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