Elaine Jin Movies
Mainland writer/director Li Yu teams with producer and screenwriter Fang Li for this tale of money and love in the Chinese capitol. Lin Dong (Tony Leung Kar-fai) is a resourceful entrepreneur from the southern province of Guangdong who has risen through the ranks to become the manager of the highly profitable Golden Basin Foot Massage Parlor. The popular parlor is staffed by a group of attractive young girls that includes Liu Pingguo (Fan Bingbing) and Xiaomei (Zeng Meihuizi), two Guangdong natives who are also looking for a better life in the big city. One night, after some heavy drinking, Dong takes Pingguo up to his lavish apartment and awkwardly forces himself on the girl as her window-cleaner husband, Kun (Tong Dawei), watches in shock from his harness outside. Later, when Pingguo discovers that she is pregnant, Dong, his infertile wife, Wang Mei (Elaine Jin), Kun, and the mother-to-be all sit down together to sign contracts that will allow Dong to adopt the child in exchange for a healthy chunk of change. The airtight agreement slowly begins to unravel, however, when the child is born and biological mother Pingguo realizes that giving up her child simply isn't an option. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Leung Kar-Fai, Fan Bingbing, (more)
Master Taiwanese director Edward Yang spins this intricate and complex yarn about life's everyday crises. The film focuses on N.J. Jian (Wu Nien-Jen, a noted writer/director in his own right); his wife, Min-Min (Elaine Jin); and their two children, teenager Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee) and young Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang). Their middle-class existence seems stable and secure until a series of incidents throws all of their lives out of kilter. The misfortunes start at the wedding of Min-Min's ne'er-do-well brother, Ah-Di (Chen Xisheng), when his jilted ex-girlfriend Yun-Yun (Tseng Hsin-yi) bursts into the proceedings and lambastes the bride. Upset by the ruckus and feeling unwell, Min-Min's mother goes home early only to suffer a stroke and slip into a coma. After the wedding, N.J. runs into his first love, Sherry (Ke Suyun), who is married to a rich American. This chance encounter shakes N.J. to his very foundations, forcing him to reevaluate his life. At the same time, N.J.'s computer company deliberates on whether or not to collaborate with a renowned Japanese games designer, Ota (Issey Ogata), sending N.J. to Japan to negotiate a contract. Confronted by her mother's coma, Min-Min also takes stock of her life and finds it lacking. On the brink of a nervous breakdown, she suddenly joins a religious retreat. In Japan, N.J. warms to his potential business partner Ota, spending long evenings discussing life and love in hip Tokyo jazz clubs. There, N.J. also meets up with Sherry; they relive old memories and flirt with infidelity. At the same, Ting-Ting, who quietly blames herself for her grandmother's coma, learns her first hard lessons about love, while Yang-Yang causes trouble at school and wrestles with the truths of the adult world. This film won the Golden Palm for Best Direction at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was an official selection for the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wu Nien-Chen, Kelly Lee, (more)
- 2000
Former assistant director to renowned Taiwanese filmmakers Tsai Ming-liang and Sylvia Chang, Vivian Chang makes her directorial debut with this quiet, nuanced cinematic triptych about three stages of a woman's life. The first segment centers on a five-year-old lass (Huang Pin-hsuan) who sells tissues at a Taipei night market while her father begs for money by day and drinks, gambles, and beats her philandering mother by night. Meanwhile, the child imagines her parents either dead or as tango dancers. The second section focuses on an alienated teenager (Tammy Tseng) who copes with her own ennui by swiping the ID cards of strangers and assuming their identity for a while. She stumbles upon a partner in crime when she meets a motorcycle accident victim (Leon Dai) suffering from acute amnesia. The final segment deals with a 30-year-old woman (Shu Qi) who visits her dying mother while considering becoming a parent herself. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hsiao Shu-shen
- 2000
Renowned director Stanley Kwan spins this parable about post-handover Hong Kong, the second in a trilogy about the former colony that began with Hold You Tight (1998). Inspired from the 1998 "bird flu" that killed several people and prompted authorities to order the wholesale slaughter of that city's chickens, this film centers on seven disparate people trapped on an island because of a government quarantine. The film opens with Haruki (Takao Osawa), a Japanese writer suffering from consumption, trying to write his next novel. Other characters that populate the film include Sharon (Michele Reis), a lesbian Chinese-American businesswoman who lived on the island as a child, Sharon's married Japanese friend Marianne (Kaori Momoi), and party girl Mei Ling (played by former pin-up model Shu Qi), who came to the island to meet a Brit with whom she shacked up the night before. Also, there is young actor Han (Julian Cheung), hailing from Hong Kong, and Bo (Gordon Liu) the gay middle-aged manager of the island's hotel. After the aforementioned people cross paths, news comes that the government has stopped all traffic to and from the island for an indefinite period of time in order to prevent the spread of the "stone virus." As the long night wears on, the inhabitants have little to do except wait and talk. Soon they begin to reveal more and more of themselves. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Takao Osawa, Shu Qi, (more)
- 1999
- NR
Renowned actor/director Sylvia Chang created this richly layered film about memory, regret, and lost love. The film opens as successful filmmaker Cheryl (Chang) discusses a script idea about young love with a young screenwriter. She pitches a story about Shao-rou (Gigi Leung) a beautiful though clumsy schoolgirl who falls for a quiet, guitar-playing young man named Ho-chuen (Takeshi Kaneshiro). They develop a deep and enduring passion in spite of meddling parents, jealous friends, and their own naïveté. Yet when they are caught stealing away for a night at far-off Lantau Island, they face the wrath of Shao-rou's mother. The strain proves too much and they tearfully break up. Shao-rou's best friend Li (Karen Mok) responds to the news by offering both emotional sympathy and a bungled attempt at physical affection. The already distraught teen flees, ending their long friendship. Later, when Hou-chuen and Shao-rou meet by happenstance in Tokyo, they quickly realize that time has not altered their feelings for each other. She has become a successful fashion designer while he has become a less-than-successful tour guide. The twist comes when we learn not just that Hou-chuen is married but also who his wife turned out to be. As Cheryl describes the affair, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell if she is outlining a storyline or reminiscing about an old flame. Leung and Kaneshiro, one of Asia's biggest heartthrobs, give sensitive and charismatic performances as both awkward teenagers and world-weary adults. Chang employs a complex narrative structure of flashbacks and flashforwards to tell this beautifully wrought, quietly touching story. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kaneshiro, Gigi Leung, (more)
- 1999
Riley Ip directs his melodrama about a man haunted by his memories. Ailing from Alzheimer's disease, Roy (Eric Tsang) returns to Hong Kong after 30 years in Brazil to track down his former enemy, Nine Dragons. Claiming that he was previously a notorious gangster called Mountain Leopard, he enlists the help of young street tough Smokey (Nicholas Tse). Roy tells Smokey that back in the 1970s, he and his arch-nemesis were rivals for the attention of an enigmatic beauty (Shu Qi). When she seemed to favor Roy, Nine Dragons shot him and ditched him on a barge for Brazil. Yet as the hunt continues, Smokey learns that the truth is a bit different. Meanwhile, Smokey's young heart yearns for the very female cop (Kelly Chen) who once arrested him. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelly Chen, Stephen Fung, (more)
International action star Jackie Chan shifts gears in Bolei Cheun, in which martial arts are put on the back burner and romantic comedy is in the forefront. Bu (Shu Qi), the daughter of a pair of Taiwanese restaurant owners, one day finds a bottle floating near the docks with a message inside. The note reads, "Do you know I'm waiting for you?" and is signed "Albert," with an address in Hong Kong attached. Bu, convinced this is her destiny, flies to Hong Kong to meet the mysterious Albert, only to find he's a gay cosmetologist (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) who intended for the note to be found by his ex-boyfriend. But Albert is understanding and lets Bu stay at his apartment. Albert lets Bu tag along for a photo shoot he's working and she meets multi-millionaire C.N. Chan (Jackie Chan) when she helps him ward off a gang of toughs hired by L. W. Lo (Emil Chow), who became Chan's enemy in their schooldays and is still out to make his life miserable. Chan is single and a bit lonely, and quickly finds himself attracted to Bu. Bu discovers she likes Chan as well, but things become sticky when her boyfriend flies in from Taiwan to find out what she's done -- and Lo sends an American martial arts champion out to kidnap Chan's new love. While Bolei Cheun does feature a few sequences displaying Jackie Chan's unique fighting style and acrobatic dexterity, the emphasis is on the story and characters rather than the action, with Chan in a rare romantic lead, Leung cast against type and Shu Qi dominating most of the film's first act. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Chan, Shu Qi, (more)
"Once upon a time in distant China, there were three sisters. One loved money, one loved power, and one loved her country." So opens this historical, melodramatic chronicle of the influential lives of three daughters from one of pre-Communist China's wealthiest families. Two of the Soong sisters married important figures in 20th-century Chinese history. Soong Ching-ling married Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Chinese Republic while her sister May-ling married Sun's successor, the famed Chian Kai-shek. The oldest daughter Ai-ling married industrialist H.H. Kung, a wealthy and powerful man who eventually became Hong Kong's finance minister. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
The European Upper Crust meets the Taiwan Underworld in this convoluted comic action thriller. Winston Cheng (Chang Kuo-shu) is a prominent businessman who has somehow managed to fall deep into debt to organized crime leaders in Taipai, to the tune of $100 million. When it becomes clear that the gangsters are tired of waiting for their money, Cheng goes underground, just as two mob enforcers (Wu Nein-jen and Wang Po-sen) are sent out to find him. Cheng's son (Tang Tsung-sheng) -- who calls himself Red Fish -- is the leader of a street gang; the gunmen start following Red Fish and his partners in crime -- Hong Kong (Chang Cheng), Lun Lun (Ko Yu-lun), and Little Buddha (Wang Chi-tsan) -- in hopes that the son will lead them to the father. Meanwhile, Marthe (Virginie Ledoyen) has come from France to Taipai in search of Markus (Nick Erickson), her former lover who has relocated from London. Marthe discovers that Markus has a new girlfriend, Alison (Ivy Chen); feeling hurt and rejected, Marthe runs into Lun Lun and the rest of Red Fish's gang at the Hard Rock Cafe, and she spends the night with them. Marthe and Lun Lun soon become romantically involved, which drives a wedge between him and the other members of the gang; meanwhile, Ginger (Diana Dupuis), the operator of an escort service, wants to recruit Marthe to work for her. Red Fish encounters Angela (Carrie Ng), who double-crossed Winston years ago; he sets out to avenge the wrong done to his father, but soon he soon learns that Winston is in more immediate danger than he imagined. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Hsiao-ch'i (Caroline Lu) sings in an all-girl band and appears to spend most of her waking hours in the late-night world of Taipei. A boy called Hsiao-feng (Wang Ch'i-tsan) spends all of his time following her around and he calls her "sis" for no discernible reason. No one seems to question his being there, and this eventually proves to be quite a mystery. The girl's life is otherwise pretty unsatisfactory, what with her mother's intrusive Christian proselytizing, her comatose, bedridden uncle, and a boyfriend who won't leave his wife for her. Eventually, the girl realises that this "boy" is her comatose uncle's spirit, and things in her family go from simply being a bit threadbare to truly being unravelled. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ni Shu-chun
- 1991
Edward Yang's fifth picture is a novelistic exploration of the meanings and contradictions of Taiwanese cultural identity. Set in 1960, and based on a true incident weighing heavily on Yang's own youth, the film -- which, in its unedited form, clocks in at just under four hours -- primarily focuses on the life of S'ir, a high school student whose civil servant father was among the millions of Chinese mainlanders who fled to Taipei in the wake of 1949's civil uprisings. In the picture's opening scenes, it is revealed that S'ir is teetering on the brink of academic expulsion; like so many of the film's characters, he is clearly yearning for a stronger sense of belonging, and as a result joins a youth gang, much to the detriment of his life at home and at school. In time, he falls for Ming, a flirtatious girl with domestic troubles of her own; this ill-fated couple's circle of friends also includes Honey, an exiled gang leader, Si'r's best friend Xiao Ma, and Cat, a younger boy obsessed with Elvis Presley. (The lyrics to Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," phonetically transcribed by Si'r's older sister, lend the film its title.) ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chang Kuo-Shu, Elaine Jin, (more)
- 1987
Derek Yee Tung-sing directs this critically praised crime thriller about two amateur thugs -- Sai (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Boney (Ronald Wong Pan) -- who bungle a bank heist, resulting in a hostage situation. Unbeknownst to them, one of their hostages is the notorious criminal Sunny Koo (Ti Lung) who quickly wrests control of the standoff from Sai and starts making his own demands to the police. Though at first he treats his captives with a measure of kindness -- even reviving an old man who has a heart attack -- he soon grows violent when the police refuse to spring his girlfriend from jail. Worse, when the cops do cave into his demand, his girlfriend refuses to join Koo. Tony Leung Kar-fai and Bowie Lam Bo-yee also appear. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ti Lung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, (more)
- 1986
A wife becomes a widow when her policeman husband commits suicide by jumping off the roof of his building at work. Shocked at his death, she is further surprised to discover he had a mistress and a four-year-old son in Taiwan. After an attempt on the widow's life, the mistress is murdered, leaving the young boy in the care of the late man's wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deanie Ip, Elaine Jin, (more)
- 1986
Billie (Irene Wan) is a beautiful model who falls for Tony (Tony Leung) in this engaging crime drama. The playboy son of a wealthy rice merchant, Tony has a penchant for nightclubs and drinking when his daily work with his father is complete. Jade Screen (Elaine Jin) is a starlet who comes home to find that her roommate, singer Jane (Tsai Chin), has been murdered. Sergeant Lau (Chop Yun Fat) is the methodical detective called in to unravel the twisted case. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Wan, Elaine Jin, (more)
