Zhang Yu Movies
A dying love between two powerful people leads to deceit, infidelity, and conspiracy in this epic-scale historical drama from director Zhang Yimou. During the latter days of the Tang dynasty, the Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) returns home from the war with his son Prince Jai (Jay Chou) in tow. However, the monarch gets a chilly reception from the Empress (Gong Li); though she's eager to see her son, her marriage has become deeply acrimonious, and she's taken a lover, Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson from the Emperor's first marriage. The Emperor, meanwhile, has his own plan for dealing with his failing marriage -- he's ordered the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) to find an exotic drug that will drive the Empress insane and administer it to her without her knowledge. However, the doctor's ethical dilemma is intensified by the fact his daughter Chan (Li Man) has fallen in love with Crown Prince Wan and the two wish to elope. As the Emperor and Empress allow their estrangement to sink into violence and retribution, their youngest son, Prince Yu (Qin Junjie), struggles to keep the peace in the household. Curse of the Golden Flower (aka Man Cheng Jim Dai Huang Jin Jia) received its North American premiere at the 2006 American Film Institute Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, (more)
The tumultuous relationship between a father returning home after years in a labor camp and the nine-year-old son who doesn't quite know what to make of this new man in his life lies at the heart of director Zhang Yang's heartfelt drama addressing the nature of change and the importance of family in Chinese culture. Chairman Mao has died and the Gang of Four have fallen, leaving former painter Gengnian (Sun Haiying) to return home to his wife, Xiuqing (Joan Chen), and the pair's nine-year-old son Xiangyang (Zhang Fan). His hands permanently damaged by the ravages of hard labor, Gengnian cannot return to painting, though his young son has shown an abundance of artistic promise. Troubled by the sudden presence of a father he has never known and rebelling against the path laid before him, Xiangyang ignites a firecracker in his hand in hopes that it may derail his artistic career. In the years that follow, Xiangyang's reputation as a talented artist grows while his relationship with his father remains forever troubled. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Chen, Sun Haiyung, (more)
A young man from rural China struggles to make good in Beijing in this drama, which suggests an updated and relocated variation on the neorealist classic Ladri di Biciclette. Guei (Cui Lin) is a teenager who arrives in the big city looking for work; he and a handful of other youngsters are hired as bicycle messengers, with their employer giving them new mountain bikes under the condition that they're paid ten yuan for each message they deliver, and the bicycles are theirs once they've made 58 trips. Guei discovers the job is not an easy one, as he deals with the complexity of the huge city, confusion over who gets what message, and the condescending attitude Beijing residents often display toward the new arrivals. Guei is determined to make good and is close to owning his bike when it's stolen; Guei's boss tells him the only way he can keep is job is if he can find the bicycle, which, in a city the size of Beijing, is no easy task. Against all odds, Guei finds the bicycle, but it's now in the hands of Jian (Li Bin), who claims he got it at a second-hand shop and isn't about to give it up. Guei steals the bike back from Jian, but now has to deal with the teenaged tough and his roughneck friends. Shiqisuide Danche was produced as part of a series of films from young Chinese directors called "Tales of Three Cities," co-produced by French and Taiwanese companies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Director Yim Ho followed up The Day the Sun Turned Cold with this film, produced by its lead actress Zhang Yu. One of a series of epic tales told by the Fifth Generation Chinese filmmakers of the 1990s, The Sun Has Ears or Taiyang You Er is the story of a northern Chinese peasant wife in the 1920s whose personal life is played out against a background of sweeping political change. You You (Zhang Yu) and her debt-ridden peasant husband Tian You must search the barren fields for food during a widespread depression, eating bark and battling mice for seeds. They meet up with an unscrupulous bandit leader, Pan Hao, a warlord who has become a lieutenant in the Nationalist Army. Pan Hao lusts after You You, but she resists. Her husband, however, wants to trade his wife for political capital, so he "loans" her to Pan Hao for ten days. During this time, You You is surprised to discover that the bandit leader, though abusive, arouses new sexual and emotional feelings in her. She prefers the powerful political leader over her inept and dull husband and accompanies Pan Hao as he is pursued by the monarchy's forces. Meanwhile, her husband has bumbled his way into a leadership position in a rival band of military strongmen. Inevitably, the two men meet in battle. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- 1986
The title character, played by Na Renhua, is the reluctant 12-year-old bride in an arranged marriage with a two-year-old boy. Expected to tow the line so far as social proprieties are concerned, Renhua rebels against the edicts of her elders. Her headstrong attitude becomes most pronounced when, at 16, she falls in love with another man. Though set in turn-of-the-century China, the cultural clashes prevalent in The Girl From Hunan deliberately parallel the state of affairs in the China of the late 1980s. Filmed in the Cantonese language, The Girl From Hunan vividly recreates an era long gone, yet somehow still very close. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zhang Yu, Ying Ruocheng, (more)
