Li Yixiang Movies

A fortune comes between two close friends, one of whom finds himself in a mess of his own making, in this darkly satiric comedy from China. Lu Jianfei (Zhao Chunyang) is driving around the farther reaches of Beijing one night with his wife Xiaoyan (Xu Jun) and daughter (Dong Hui) when he sees a car has ended up in the lake. Jianfei recognizes the auto as belonging to his friend Wang Wei (Li Yixiang) and he calls a policeman he knows, Ma Hong (Ji Ning), to report the accident. However, the car is empty and police suspect it was involved in a hit and run accident earlier the same evening. The next morning, Wei calls Jianfei and tells him he's at the hospital; Wei's wife has been hurt, though her sister insists on telling anyone who will listen that Wei beats her. Wei is worried about the news of his car, especially when he learns that the number he plays in the national lottery has just been drawn as the winner of a 12 million yaun jackpot, and his ticket was left in his car. Given his recent problems, Wei is reluctant to claim the prize himself, and hatches a scheme in which Xiaolian (Liao Weiwei), who cleans house for Jianfei and Xiaoyan, will claim the prize and turn it over to Wei in exchange for a piece of the action. But Jianfei has mixed feelings about this notion, and earns Wei's enmity when he asks for a share of the winnings for himself. Caipiao Ye Fengkuang (aka Crazy Lottery) was the first directorial credit for Gong Yingtian, best known as a novelist and playwright. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A pair of murderers cover up their crimes via the archaic working conditions of coal mining in China in this award-winning psychological drama from director Li Yang. Blind Shaft centers on two men who have a grisly scheme: They persuade their victims to work in a local mine, plot their "accidental" deaths, then pose as the relatives of the dead men to collect their meager compensation. But when one of the killers starts to feel sympathy for their next victim, an ambitious young man, he listens to his conscience instead of his amoral co-conspirator. Blind Shaft won the Silver Bear at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi