Wu Jun Movies
A young woman finds herself torn between the promise of autonomous adulthood and the demands of subservience to a lover in Stolen Life, a contemporary feminist parable by acclaimed 6th Generation Chinese Filmmaker Li Shaohong (Blush). For Yanni (Zhou Xun), life has never been easy; bereft by her mother at six years old and shuttled off to live with her grandmother and aunt, she felt neither loved nor accepted. Yanni's future prospects unexpectedly open up six years later, when her biological mother and father turn up and promise to send the 14-year-old through university. Just when the horizon looks brightest, however, Yanni's path haphazardly crisscrosses with that of a handsome truck driver, Mu-yu (($Wu Jun) who plies her with flattery and gifts - to such a degree that he inadvertently sways her away from her studies and convinces her to move into his dank and sordid sub-floor apartment. In complete disregard for her own future, she begins to spend every waking moment with Mu-yu, makes him the focal point of her universe, and may even sacrifice collegiate enrollment simply to be with him. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
For his first feature since 1993's acclaimed The Blue Kite, director Tian Zhuangzhuang chose to remake a classic 1949 Chinese film, Springtime in a Small Town. The film takes place in 1946. Yuwen (Hu Jingfan) lives on a country estate with her sickly husband, Dai Liyan (Wu Jun), and his rambunctious teenage sister, Dai Xiu (Lu Sisi). They are waited on by the family's longtime servant, Lao Huang (Ye Xiaokeng). Yuwen cares for her husband and she's kind to him, but she doesn't seem to love him. Frustrated with his inability to give her a child due to his constant illness, she sleeps in a separate room. For his part, Liyan feels guilt and shame over his inability to properly care for his wife. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of Liyan's childhood friend, Zhang Zhichen (Xin Bajqing), a well-traveled doctor. Liyan soon learns that his old friend was once his wife's neighbor, but he doesn't know that they were also in love, and had at one time planned to marry. Tensions swirl about the household as Yuwen and Zhichen try to reconcile their lingering feelings for each other with their responsibility to Liyan. Springtime in a Small Town won the San Marco Prize at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, and was selected for the 2002 New York Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hu Jingfan, Wu Jun, (more)
- 1994
- NR
A satire of the influence of Western values and ideals on Eastern culture, Chinese director Zhou Xiaowen's Ermo stars actress Ailiya as its titular heroine, a beautiful middle-aged wife and mother who undertakes an obsessive struggle to earn enough money to buy her family a television. In a dreary, remote Chinese village, miles away from anything smacking of the modern, Ermo lives with her son Huzi (Yan Zhenguo) and her husband (Ge Zhijun) -- a lazy, whiny, and impotent man who spends his time drinking medicine that he hopes will restore his virility. After traveling to the nearest town to sell the noodles that she makes, she spies a large television set in a department-store window and becomes obsessed with the notion of purchasing the biggest TV in the community in order to earn a spot of honor and envy on the social ladder. Sadly, she becomes increasingly sucked into the vacuum of capitalism, ultimately finding herself an object of mass consumption as well. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
The Last Emperor is the true story of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, the last ruler of the Chinese Ching Dynasty. Told in flashback, the film covers the years 1908 to 1967. We first see the three-year-old Pu Yi being installed in the Forbidden City by ruthless, dying dowager Empress Tzu-Hsui (Lisa Lu). Though he'd prefer to lark about like other boys, the infant emperor is cossetted and cajoled into accepting the responsibilities and privileges of his office. In 1912, the young emperor (Tijer Tsou) forced to abdicate when China is declared a republic, is a prisoner in his own palace, "protected" from the outside world. Fascinated by the worldliness of his Scottish tutor (Peter O'Toole), Pu Yi plots an escape from his cocoon by means of marriage. He selects Manchu descendant Wan Jung (Joan Chen), who likewise is anxious to experience the 20th century rather than be locked into the past by tradition. Played as an adult by John Lone, Pu Yi puts into effect several social reforms, and also clears the palace of the corrupt eunuchs who've been shielding him from life. In 1924, an invading warlord expels the denizens of the Forbidden City, allowing Pu Yi to "westernize" himself by embracing popular music and the latest dances as a guest of the Japanese Concession in Tientsin. Six years later, his power all but gone, Pu Yi escapes to Manchuria, where he unwittingly becomes a political pawn for the now-militant Japanese government. Humiliating his faithful wife, Pu Yi falls into bad romantic company, carrying on affairs with a variety of parasitic females. During World War II, the Japanese force Pu Yi to sign a series of documents which endorse their despotic military activities. At war's end, the emperor is taken prisoner by the Russians; while incarcerated, he is forced to fend for himself without servants at his beck and call for the first time. He is finally released in 1959 and displayed publicly as proof of the efficacy of Communist re-education. We last see him in 1967, the year of his death; now employed by the State as a gardener, Pu Yi makes one last visit to the Forbidden City...as a tourist. Bernardo Bertolucci's first film after a six-year self-imposed exile, The Last Emperor was released in two separate versions: the 160-minute theatrical release, and a 4-hour TV miniseries. Lensed on location, the film won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
