Fan Wei Movies

Within the scope of Asian history, few events carry the ugly and sickening connotations of the Rape of Nanking. Japanese forces invaded that Chinese city on December 9, 1937, and in the six weeks to follow, soldiers raped thousands of women and annihilated hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Director Lu Chuan directs this black-and-white docudrama account of that horrifying six-week period, with the benefit of an ensemble cast that includes Hideo Nakaizumi as a conscience-stricken Japanese soldier, Fan Wei as the aid to a German humanitarian worker, and Gao Yuanyuan as the head of a refugee camp. Lu relays the events directly and straightforwardly, with a careful avoidance of sensationalism and excessive sentimentality, and uses the chronicle to meditate on the insanity of war for all of those involved. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Over the course of five decades, a naïve ticket girl living in rural Communist China finds her life gradually shaped by the decrees of her government and the route of the Xiangyang bus in director Zhang Jiarui's emotionally sweeping tale of loyalty and maturity. Li Chunfen (Zhang Jingchu) is unwaveringly loyal to her government, and always assumes that they have her best interests in mind. A cheerful teen who works aboard a bus that travels the route between Longze and Xiangyang, Li admires crusty driver Old Cui (Fan Wei), and develops a warm puppy love for handsome young doctor Liu Fendou (Nie Yuan). When Liu is sent to labor in a stone quarry during the early years of the Cultural Revolution and Li sets out to pay a clandestine visit to her longtime love, a chaste kiss as she prepares to depart finds Li being forced to sign a report that claims she was raped. Years later, when the Communist party decrees that Cui must take a wife, he and Li are married. After the Cultural Revolution, Cui and Li's marriage begins to dissolve as Cui begins to experience impotency problems and Liu, who now lives in Shanghai, attempts to enter into a long-distance correspondence with the lovelorn Li. Despite the couple's valiant effort to make their unconventional marriage work, Li's life is forever changed as the result of a devastating tragedy. Later, as the '90s give way to the new millennium, lonely, middle-aged widow Li finally discovers the truth about her deceased husband. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A visually stylized and offbeat tale of urban romance from music video director Zhang Yibai, Spring Subway is the first release from the Beijing-based, independent production company Electric Orange Entertainment. Their seven-year-old marriage collapsing from simple ennui, twentysomething city dwellers Jian Bin (Geng Le) and Xiaohui (Xu Jinglei) cling to familiarity in hopes of maintaining their comfortably numb existence. While designer Xiaohui embarks on a extramarital affair with one of her co-workers, Jian Bin doesn't tell Xiaohui about getting fired from his job and maintains the facade of going to work by spending his day on the Beijing subway. Eavesdropping on young couples in love while daydreaming on the subway, Jian Bin himself is tempted with infidelity when he comes to the aid of an injured schoolteacher and provides anonymous care from afar during her convalescence in a local hospital. If Xiaohui and Jian Bin can only bring themselves to be as honest with one another as they are with their outside relationships, there may yet be hope for their marriage. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi